The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in New Jersey vs. T.L.O. suggests the legality of student searches by school officials should not depend on strict adherence to the probable cause standard, but on its reasonableness of suspicion and scope. (DCS)

In a federal case involving a vice-principal's pat-down search of middle-school students in a cafeteria (for a missing pizza knife), the court upheld the search, saying it was relatively unintrusive and met "TLO's" reasonable-suspicion standards. Principals need reasonable justification for searching a group. (Contains 18 references.)…

In a California case involving a 16-year-old girl's possession of three knives on school grounds, both a trial and Ninth Circuit court affirmed the school vice-principal's right to search and discover these weapons while enforcing a no-smoking policy. The court lectured parents and lawyers for wasting the court's time--especially after a juvenile…

Answers questions regarding the use of "sniffer" dogs to contend with the problem of student drug abuse. Cites cases that bear on search and seizure operations in schools. (WD)

Presents a 10-question quiz based on court decisions reported from 1977 through 1979. Three areas are covered--student discipline, student searches, and student expression. Answers and explanations are given for each question. (IRT)

After being accused of sexually harassing a student, a high school math teacher in New York was suspended with pay pending an impartial hearing. The district allowed the teacher to return to his classroom to collect his personal effects, which he had kept in boxes, desk drawers, and three filing cabinets, one of which was locked. He did not…

Reviews history of the doctrine of "in loco parentis." Examines court opinions in which the doctrine has surfaced as an issue in the following areas of litigation: corporal punishment, student searches, school rules, correlative duties, and teacher-student relationship at the college level. Finds that the status and scope of the doctrine…

By upholding a student's refusal to provide a urine sample, the Seventh Circuit Court correctly avoided further erosion of the Fourth Amendment's privacy principle. In "New Jersey v T.L.O." (1995), the U.S. Supreme Court shrunk the probable-cause standard to reasonable suspicion in the special context of public schools, retaining the…

This analysis of a November 2001 case in Botetourt County, Virginia, looks at whether the Fourth Amendment right against an unreasonable "seizure" or the 14th Amendment "liberty" for parents to control the care and custody of their children requires a ban on, or at least immediate notification regarding, detentions of a…

Comments on an article in the Summer 1992 issue of this journal (EJ 454 315) in which Professor J. M. Sanchez examined 18 decisions regarding student searches and concluded that the "T.L.O." decision made it possible to practically expunge the Fourth Amendment from American public schools. Introduces article by Lawrence Rossow (EA 530…

Discusses federal district court decision dismissing suit brought by three Texas high school students claiming that their Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated when police, at request of administrators, entered school and rounded up, handcuffed, and detained them and 11 other students who "hung out" with a student arrested…

The concept "in loco parentis" is discussed in relation to its historical place in education and its current status. The doctrine has expanded from its original idea of "restraint and correction" to figure significantly in court cases involving corporal punishment, student searches, school rules, correlative duties, and…

In a case involving a swim-team student's mandatory pregnancy test and a varsity coach's mishandling of confidentiality, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals awarded the coach qualified immunity, while rejecting the student's Fourth and First Amendment claims. Discretion and legal counsel would have helped. (MLH)

Summarizes the U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have had the greatest impact on public elementary and secondary education within the last 50 years, beginning with "Brown v. Board of Education" in 1954. Includes decisions involving equality of education, freedom of expression, student discipline and safety, and religion in schools.…