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Fourth Amendment Challenges: The Legality of Searching Children

NCJ Number
131628
Journal
Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education Volume: 36 Issue: 2 Dated: (Winter 1991) Pages: 73-81
Author(s)
A M Raimo
Date Published
1991
Length
9 pages
Annotation
Focus is on the recent application and interpretation of the fourth amendment to school children and the legality of searches by school authorities.
Abstract
In its landmark decision, New Jersey v. T.L.O., the United States Supreme Court shifted the balance between government authority and student privacy rights in favor of school authority. School officials may find comfort in the standard articulated by the Court which encourages school authorities to regulate their conduct in accord with reason and common sense but must recognize that they have not been provided unlimited discretion. The balancing test specified in T.L.O. still applies to the area of student privacy. In regard to New Jersey's adoption of a policy for mass drug screening based upon its interpretation of the T.L.O. ruling, mandatory mass drug screening is not desirable either as a disciplinary or as a rehabilitative measure. The T.L.O. case established the reasonableness standard and inherent in that standard there must be individualized reasonable suspicion which is the threshold requirement for a valid search. 36 footnotes

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