A recent state appellate court decision, "Commonwealth of Pennsylvania versus Cass," suggests that careless or misguided handling of drug searches (especially random drug-sniffing searches) will not hold up in court. Unless advance warnings are provided, administrators should conduct only narrowly focused searches that satisfy…

Reviews court cases related to search of students and extracts guiding principles administrators can use to reconcile the students' legitimate privacy interests with the educational necessities of the school. (JM)

Regarding school searches, courts have provided guidelines balancing individual students' rights against the larger school community's rights. Administrators are bound by the Fourth Amendment, which stresses reasonable grounds of suspicion and related circumstances. Strip searches, metal detectors, hidden cameras, and locker searches may meet…

Every year, a few administrators mishandle school searches and create spectacles similar to the New Castle, Pennsylvania, incident involving six illegally strip-searched students. Principals using "cops-and-robber" techniques to unearth contraband may not realize the potential for infringing on students' constitutional privacy rights.…

Washington's State Supreme Court held unconstitutional a secondary school's routine search of the luggage of all students participating in a school-sponsored overnight trip. Such general searches are not permitted, and schools can find other means of ensuring good student discipline. (PGD)

Outlines the confusion surrounding a Supreme Court decision in the "New Jersey vs. TLO" case, which put at issue the prohibition against unreasonable searches in schools. The Court's decision allows a lower standard of reasonableness to be applied in school searches. The standards are not clear and are open to serious question. (MD)

Detection of drug users at school is a problem complicated by recent New Jersey court cases upholding students' privacy rights against mandatory medical examinations and search-and-seizure actions. Requiring confidential medical screening by private physicians for sports and other extracurricular activities is an alternative strategy offering…

THE FOLLOWING IS THE FULL TEXT OF THIS DOCUMENT: A parent who notices a gun in his child's room would not hesitate to ask questions and demand answers about its presence. As a school administrator, I believe it is my responsibility to ask questions and take action when I find an equally destructive weapon--drugs--in my schools. The zealous…