Locker Searches Essay, Research Paper
The IV amendment states ?The right of the people to be secure in their
persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and
seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable
cause…? This means that a person will not have their private property
searched or taken without a warrant or probable cause. Therefore, random locker
searches are illegal, against civil rights, and wrong because, if they are done
randomly, they are done to students who may or may not have a reason to be
searched and if they do not, its against the law and unconstitutional. Although
the lockers are the property of the school, the contents within are not. The
administrators should not be allowed to go through the lockers purchased by the
students for a whole year. The items in the lockers are the private property of
the students and therefore should not be handled, looked at, inspected,
confiscated, or otherwise by the administration. Modern day schools are not run
by the doctrine of loco parentis, which stated that ? school officials were
given the right, duty, and responsibility to act in the place of a parent.?
This meant that administration can search students and take things from them
that they considered ?inappropriate? and they could do so without a warrant
or ?probable cause? or ?reasonable suspicion.? Which does allow the
administration to search a locker or student if they is a ?reasonable
suspicion? that the student might have something illegal, but if a random
locker search is random then there is no ?reasonable suspicion,? and with no
?reasonable suspicion? or a warrant, than the locker search is illegal. A
school is run by the constitution and the laws stated in it, and random locker
searches are a blatant violation of the rights promised to the people in the
constitution of the United States. In conclusion, random locker searches are
unconstitutional, and should not be practiced by the administration. It violates
student(s) rights, and constitutional rights. These types of practices should be
outlawed.