In recent years, public school students have been searched with metal detectors and occasionally sniffed by dogs or strip searched. Their lockers and bookbags have been searched, and their urine has been tested for drugs--all in the name of school safety. This article explores the legal ramifications of such searches and calls for a critical…

Concerns over students' and staff members' safety in public schools continue to mount-- manifested in zero-tolerance policies, stringent disciplinary practices, and efforts to implement drug-screening programs. Although "reasonable suspicion" for searches and drug testing is the watchword, courts cannot agree on definitions. Legalities…

This report--part of a collection of 54 papers from the 48th annual conference of the Education Law Association held in November 2002-- discusses student drug testing in Texas public schools. It contains the results of a 2001 study of student drug-testing policies in all 1,056 Texas public-school districts. In response to the Supreme Court's June…