Locker Searches
“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”(Hang Together) those words were spoken by Benjamin Franklin while signing the Declaration of Independence. However, is our country “hanging separately” because of schools? If we must hang together, why do teachers not trust us enough that they have to search our locker for illegal drugs or weapons? Even though some people argue that locker searches can prevent illegal substances and weapons from entering the school, locker searches may decrease the trust from the students while they create unnecessary pauses from the learning process and being just as wrong as regular searches.
To start off, locker searches may create unnecessary breaks in the learning…
Not only did that unnecessary break happen but, “In another case, a principal and two teachers in Kansas City, Missouri, were suspended with pay after twenty-three elementary school students were strip-searched in an effort to locate five dollars in missing lunch money. A female teacher allegedly took the girls into a restroom and had them strip down to their underwear when no one admitted taking the money. A male physical education teacher executed the same procedure with male students. The money was later found in the boys restroom but was not located as part of either search.”(Essex) This piece of evidence shows another break from the learning environment to find a couple dollars, this shows the distrust in teachers to students from the teachers searching students, but ultimately finding the money in a different place. In addition, in the case of Bellnier v. Lund, the Plaintiff Leonti said he had 4 dollars when…
Firstly, the students see the searches of their lockers is an invasion of property given by the school itself “The biggest drawback to a school locker search is the lack of trust students may feel as a result of actions they see as an invasion of privacy. Because students may keep personal items in their lockers, such as photographs and personal letters, even a search with the best intentions can appear to be a major breach of trust by teachers and administrators, causing a rift between the student body and the faculty” (classroom-synonym) the evidence states that the searches would be negative in many ways. First being a violation of the 4th amendment, and second, searches decrease the trust between teacher and students in an environment where the teachers require the students to trust them. In addition, the students feel that it is a violation of their privacy. Students question why they are being targeted. Some schools say that the lockers are their property, however backpacks are the students’ private property, but schools state that whatever comes to school, the teachers are obliged to search if reasonable (classroom-synonym). In the case of New Jersey v T.L.O, although the bag was owned by…