"Are Strip Searches in School Legal?" is an article about a recent Supreme Court decision on a lawsuit from the family of a young teen girl who was strip searched by "female school officials." The Supreme Court ruled that, while searches of external clothing can be performed with very little evidence, strip searches require substantial evidence that the contraband item is dangerous or that the student is in fact hiding the item beneath their clothes.
I think that the Supreme Court made a wise decision in this case, and I think the author of the article does a good job of explaining the legal and Constitutional issues in ways that people without law school training can understand. However, I disagree with the statement in the article that says, "Secondly, the ruling applies only to public schools. Private and parochial schools are not covered by the Fourth Amendment because they are not part of the state." Even though private and parochial schools are not controlled by the state, the students attending them are still citizens of the United States. The protections outlined in the Bill of Rights of the Constitution apply to all citizens.
Source:
Freedman, Adam (2011). "Are Strip Searches in School Legal?". Legal Lad.
Retrieved from: http://legallad.quickanddirtytips.com/strip-searches-in-schools.aspx on September 6, 2011.
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