At the end of 2005, Robert D. Felner was riding high. A well-paid dean at the University of Louisville, he had just secured a $694,000 earmarked grant from the U.S. Department of Education to create an elaborate research center to help Kentucky's public schools. The grant proposal, which Mr. Felner had labored over for months, made some impressive…

School administrators are expected to balance the need for school safety and good order with the rights of students to be free of unreasonable search of their person and property. This balance can be particularly difficult when over-the-counter or prescription drugs are involved. This article summarizes a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that…

Strip searches should be considered searches of last resort based on the intrusive nature of the search and the resulting impact it may have on a student. It is well established by the courts that as the intrusiveness of the search intensifies, the standard of the Fourth Amendment reasonably approaches probable cause which is a higher standard…

This article discusses a recent case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court which highlights the importance of having specific suspicions of misbehavior before conducting a strip search. The case involves an eighth-grade female student who was being strip-searched by a middle school assistant principal, a school nurse, and an administrative assistant…

In light of the dramatic increase in the presence of weapons, violence, drugs, and other contraband in schools, school officials in the United States and England face significant challenges as they seek to maintain safe and orderly learning environments. Almost twenty five years after the United States Supreme Court's 1985 ruling in "New…

This study explores the court system's treatment of students' Fourth Amendment rights in cases emerging from contrasting minority school settings and whether discrepancies exist in case outcomes between these extremes. From virtually every search and seizure case that occurred between the 1985 U.S. Supreme Court case in "New Jersey v.…

The Supreme Court's preview is presented in this article. During the 2006-07 Supreme Court term, it was the 5-4 decisions that garnered the most attention. Twenty-four of the term's 72 cases were decided by this narrowest of margins--the highest percentage of 5-4 opinions in a decade--even as the share of unanimous opinions fell "below levels seen…

Purpose: A factor largely overlooked amid the press for greater security in schools is the extent to which law enforcement participates in search and seizure and the implications such actions carry for student civil liberties. As case law suggests, police engaged in school searches may be held to the probable cause standard or the more flexible…

The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the people of the United States from unreasonable searches and seizures. On first reading, these protections seem clearly defined. The amendment was meant to protect Americans from the kinds of random searches and seizures that the colonists experienced under British colonial rule. Under…

In an effort to safeguard the learning environment, school administrators generally rely on district or local school guidelines and professional judgment. With new technology, the proliferation of drug use, and increased school violence, schools have become a complex environment to manage for both system and local leadership. Administrators are…

Reviews the status of Supreme Court deliberations in questions surrounding a New Jersey school's search of a student's purse. The state courts found the search unreasonable and reversed a lower court decision. (MD)

The legality of warrantless searches of students depends on the kind of search that takes place and what happens to any evidence obtained during the search. (Author/IRT)

Develops three views of the theory underlying the probable cause requirement of the Fourth Amendment. The advantage of the approach based on the rights prohibition of violent intrusions is that it provides standards based on the individual conduct rather than on governmental acts. Available from UCLA Law Review, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles,…

This paper reviews the application of the Fourth Amendment, which protects persons against unreasonable search and seizure, as it applies to the student-college relationship. The topics discussed in terms of federal and state court decisions include warrantless searches, delegation of authority to conduct searches, notice of identity and purpose…