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Student Rights, Due Process and Search in School

Tom Szymanski

Liberty Interest

- A person's good name, integrity or reputation.

- Liberty interest is created when an administrative action creates potential harm to future job or educational opportunities.

Procedural and Substantive Due Process

Procedural - the minimum sequence of steps taken by a school official in reading a decision, usually defined as notice and the right to a fair hearing.

Substantive - considers the fairness of a decision and involves such concepts as adequate notice, consistency of standards how the evidence was collected and applied to the decision, the rationality of the decision and the nexus of the decision with a legitimate educational purpose.

Goss V Lopez (1975)

Legal Question: Were the students'

right to due process violated by the principal?

Random School Drug Sweeps

Determining Substantive Due Process

Procedural Guidelines for Suspensions

Analyze the Law

1. Accurate Notice of Conduct

1. Is this an unreasonable search situation?

2. Do you think there is a 4th amendment violation here?

Four Questions:

1. Does the rule or policy provide adequate notice of what conduct is prohibited?

2. Does the rule or policy serve a legitimate educational purpose?

3. Is the consequence reasonably connected to the offense?

4. Is the rule or policy applied equitably?

How accurately the policy or rule articulates or describes actions that would violate the rule or policy..

Student Search

- 9 Students "demonstrating in the gym"

- They were disrupting an ongoing class and were told to leave.

- 1 Student physically attacked a police office trying to remove another student.

- Students were suspended immediately and offered a conference with parents to discuss their future.

- Each were suspended for 10 days.

New Jersey v. T.L.O. (1985)

Legal Question: Were 4th amendment rights violated because the search was unreasonable?

Supreme Court Finding

4th Amendment - "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated...

but upon probable cause.

Students: At school and school-sponsored events, these rights protect students only from UNREASONABLE searches.

Nonintrusive Searches

3. Consequences

- Student (T.L.O.) was discovered with another girl smoking in restroom.

- T.L.O. denied smoking to Assistant Principal.

- Assistant Principal demanded to see purse and found cigarettes and rolling papers.

- Marijuana was found in purse with pipe, plastic bags and substantial amount of cash.

- Index card was found containing a list of students who owed T.L.O. money and two letters implicating T.L.O in marijuana dealing.

Are the consequences rational in light of the offense?

4. Equitably

Was substantive due process probably

followed?

Are the consequences reasonable if the school was considering having something similar at the pep rally?

- Is everyone similarly treated in

a similar manner?

- Does the policy have a disproportional

impact on a particularly identifiable

group of students?

- The search was not a violation of T.L.O.'s 4th amendment rights.

Reasonableness of the Under the Circumstances

1. The search should be justified at inception.

2. The search should be reasonably related in scope to the reason for the search.

3. The search should be reasonably related to the objective of the search.

4. The search should not be excessively intrusive in the light of the age and sex of the student and the nature of the infraction.

2. Legitimate Educational Purpose

- Most courts have recognized the difference between the difference between th search of a person or a person's personal property and that of a book bag, locker or car on school property.

Diminished Expecations for Privacy

- Field Trips/Overnight Stays

- Student Lockers

- Metal Detectors

- Random Sweeps for Contraband

- Use of Drug Dogs

- Automobile Searches

For students rights to be restricted, the restriction must serve some legitimate educational function.

1. Student must be given oral or

written notice of the charges.

2. If student denies charges,

an explanation of the evidence

the authorities have and an opportunity

for the student to present his or her version of the events is required.

3. These steps must be taken

immediately following the misconduct or infraction that results in suspension.

Property Interest

Education is a property interest when it is extended to all individuals in a particular class.

Anytime a student is denied access to public school education, they are denied "property."

Well Ordered school

Due Process and 5th/14th Amendments

3 Defining Characteristics

1. Everyone in school accepts, and knows that everyone else accepts the same concept of justice.

2. All personal interactions, policies and applications of policy are designed to facilitate a system of cooperation.

3. Students teachers and school leaders have a rationale sense of justice that allows them to understand and for the most part act accordingly as their positions in the school dictate.

Due Process - the manner of fair and adequate procedures for making equitable and fair decisions

5th/14th Amendments - Both address that persons shall not be deprived of "life, liberty, or property without due process of law."

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