Volume
1, No. 2
Winter 2002
The
late Hamilton Fish, a U.S. Congressman from N.Y., was dedicated
to justice and youth issues. It is in his memory which we
dedicate our work.
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|
 Search
& Seizure: Threats of Violence
by
Kirk Bailey, J.D. and Catherine J. Ross, Ph.D., J.D. |
| In
this Issue:
• "School Liability: A Legal Primer" (Part
two of four)
• Tough Lessons on Bullying
• Program Review
• Tip for Classroom Management
• Around the Web: Other Resources
on the Internet
• HFI News Briefs
• Heard in the Halls
• Book
Review |
The
level and variety of school violence may place significant pressure
on school officials to use a range of methods to intercept guns
and weapons in schools or to respond to threats of violence.
These methods may include metal detectors, random searches of
lockers or individuals, or individual searches of students suspected
of wrongdoing. This article outlines some of the basic legal
rules for conducting searches at schools.
Search and Seizure
Generally, school officials may search a student
“if the search is justified at its inception and is
conducted in a manner reasonably related in scope to the circumstances.”
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|
 The
reasonableness standard is intended “to ensure student’s
rights [will] be invaded no more than necessary to maintain
order in schools,” not to authorize all searches conceivable
to school officials.
A
search will be justified where there are reasonable grounds
for suspecting a search will reveal contraband, or evidence
that a student is violating school rules. The permissible
scope of a search depends on whether the measures used are
reasonably related to the objective of the search and not
excessively intrusive given the age and sex of the student
and nature of the infraction. continued
on page 3
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The
Hamilton Fish Institute is administered by The George Washington
University Institute for Education Policy Studies, Graduate
School of Education and Human Development
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We
want to hear from you
In
January, an e-mail was sent out to those who have subscribed
to the newsletter asking for suggestions on the topics you
most want to know about in future issues.
Our goal with The Bulletin is to provide information on the
topics our readers most want to know about. Your responses
influenced the content of this issue in many ways. For those
who wanted information on school reform, we reviewed a book
that discusses this issue in great depth. See the review on
page 8. For those who want more information on school security,
our continued feature from our Legal Primer (above) should
help answer many of your questions. More resources? |
|
Check
out the side columns on pages 2-7. For information on programs
to reduce violence and bullying, read how Steps to Respect
and the Second Step programs from the Committee for Children
have worked at one California school on page 4. Also, many
of you said you wanted to know more about alternative education.
That topic will be explored in our next issue.
Please continue to share your comments and
suggestions with us at http://www.hamfish.org/newsroom/
newsletter/survey.html.
You can also always write the editor at aliseal@aol.com.
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2121
K Street NW
Suite 200
Washington, DC
20037
Tel: 202 496 2200
Fax: 202 496 6244
hfi@hamfish.org
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