Crime in Schools & Student Rights
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Police have increasingly been called into the public educational setting to insure the safety of high school campuses. Many school districts have their own police departments, or "school police," who head security departments on campus. Their credibility as police officers helps to insure a safe environment in which learning can take place. Drugs, weapons, on-campus brawls, and traffic problems are less likely when students see that the full force of the law is at hand. Background information on school police in some communities will provide an introduction to what many believe is the best solution to crime in today's high schools. At the same time, however, issues of search/seizure, random drug testing, locker searches, and strip searching have been brought to the forefront by the advent of tightened security measures and an increase in crime. The constitutionality of the above issues will be discussed, and some relevant court cases will be examined. Increased drug use and violence in the public schools have prompted school administrators to implement policies and procedures to combat undesirable student behaviors. Public pressure has led school officials to conduct searches of lockers and personal property with greater frequency. Many principals have even resorted to the use of strip searches when they believe they are necessary--and reasonable. Even so, as one article surveying the issue points out, "As effective as these practices may seem to be, the administr
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up evidence verifying that a rule or law has been broken. Reasonable suspicion does not demand absolute knowledge by school officials but rather a belief of wrongdoing. The search can not be overly intrusive, however, or the Court might still weigh in favor of the defendant. In T.L.O.'s case a strip search was not conducted; she simply emptied out the contents of her purse.
By allying themselves with police departments, school administrators have bolstered their own efforts at providing safe schools; the police, by allying themselves with school administrators in a school setting, somewhat broaden their ability to search and seize. The Spring Independent School District's (S.I.S.D.) police department in Houston, Texas, is one example of a public school system which is making changes in its security forces by adding more personnel, upgrading security systems, and adding armed officers. Rotondo (40) quotes Alan Bragg, SISD chief of police, as saying, "Police departments for school districts are really becoming a nationwide trend." At SISD, the department has grown from one officer to 11 since it began in 1991. Two officers are stationed outside each of the district's two high schools to direct traffic and maintain parking,
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Approximate Word count = 2217
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)
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