Civics Report
Civics Report :
I chose to do my report on student’s rights in the public school system. Lisa Rowe, then sixteen a student at Teaneck High School, in New Jersey, thought she was doing a good deed when she returned a purse she'd found in her English class. When she took the purse to the office instead of being rewarded she was told to step into the principal’s office and asked to pull up her sweater and pull down her slacks and then she was searched. Why? In case she was hiding stolen money from the purse. That is just one example of how student’s rights are being violated and here is another.
In the case T.L.O. Vs NEW JERSEY a girl got caught smoking in the bathroom of her school. She was then taken to the office and asked to open her purse and spill out the content. What was found in the purse was marijuana, a role of money and notes subjecting that she was a marijuana dealer. Her parents soon filed a suit against the school on the basis that the evidence found was obtained illegally because no search warrant was used. In 1985 the case got all the way to the supreme court. The court ruled that the fourth amendment rights didn't apply in the school and school officials still have to have reasonable suspicion not probable cause.
Another famous case is the case TINKER Vs DES MOINES where two students wanted to protest the war by wearing arm bands. When the school officials saw what the two students were wearing the teachers demanded that the students take the arm bands off at once. The case got all the way to the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court said that the students had a right to wear arm bands just as long as they were not going to harm themselves or any one else.
Just a couple of laws on student’s rights. The First Amendment says that you have a right to freedom of speech, press, religion and freedom to a peaceful assembly. The Second Amendment says that you have the right to be secure in your home and your personal things, but upon probable cause. Can student’s lockers be searched without a search warrant? Yes, your lockers can be searched without a warrant, only reasonable suspicion that a rule or law has been broken is all that is needed to perform a search. Can students be subject to mass searches on campus? No, there must be suspicion directed at each student being searched. What should you do if something of yours is getting searched the best thing to do is to say in a loud clear voice that you don’t want them to search your things so that you can have witnessed, but don't try to stop them. Most important of all don't put anything in your locker that you don't want anyone to see. I feel that students rights are being violated mare than people know. If more people knew exactly what rights they had it would make a lot of things better and easier to understand.
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