The 'worst of both worlds': Increased law enforcement presence, reasonable suspicion, and searches of students in public schools

This dissertation examines court cases with respect to criminal prosecution and civil liability that school and police officials are held to when conducting student searches. The U.S. Supreme Court decision in New Jersey v. T.L.O. (1985) led to diminished rights for students by setting aside the more stringent requirement of probable cause for the less demanding reasonable suspicion standard for student searches. The search in T.L.O. was a purse search, but the decision has been applied to other searches, including administrative, locker, vehicle, book sack and luggage, personal, drug testing, and strip searches. Three additional Supreme Court cases are discussed, including two related to drug testing, Vernonia School District 47J v. Acton (1995) and The Board of Education of Independent School District No. 92 of Pottawatomie County v. Earls (2002), and one decision on strip searches, Safford Unified School District No. 1 v. Redding (2009). The reasonable suspicion standard was originally designed for school officials' searches of students because of their lack of knowledge and training in law. However, more schools are hiring law enforcement officers in order to keep a safe educational environment and the less stringent reasonable suspicion standard has applied to their searches of students in some cases. Organizing the dissertation into chapters based on the type of search, the author attempts to determine themes among the lower courts in deciding these searches. Each chapter is broken down into two sections, with most delineated by officer involvement in the search. The chapter on drug testing is demarcated by the level of suspicion used by officials to justify the testing. Most of the cases are criminal cases, but quite a few involve civil liability claims under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983. In conclusion, while students' rights, especially Fourth Amendment rights, are being eroded by the courts, they still possess some privacy at school. Whenever a search is deemed unconstitutional by the courts, the evidence will be suppressed in criminal cases and liability can be attached in civil cases. School officials and officers at the schools need to be cognizant of these guaranteed rights and conduct searches accordingly.;KEY WORDS: School Searches, Section 1983, New Jersey v. T.L.O., Search Liability, Fourth Amendment, Students' Rights, Reasonable Suspicion, Probable Cause.