Argumentative Essay: The Fourth Amendment In Public Schools

The Fourth Amendment to the constitution protects United States citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures. Our forefathers recognized the harm and abuses that occurred in the colonies to innocent people by the British, and they made sure to write protections into the U.S. Constitution. Fearing the police state that any nation has the potential to become and recognizing that freedom and liberty is meaningless when victimization by the police is a real and foreboding threat the Fourth Amendment was created. The Fourth Amendment has gone through many challenges and controversies in the past, and currently the issue of how the Fourth Amendment applies to students in public schools has come to be contended in the courts. While it is apparent
The moment when minors are most at the mercy of government officials is while in school, and this is when these Constitutional Fourth Amendment protections are
T.L.O. decision. In the case of Vernonia School District 47J v. Acton the court approved of random drug testing of athletic students based on no suspicion or "reasonableness" at all. Writing for the opinion of the court Justice Scalia says that, "A search unsupported by probable cause can be constitutional, we have said, 'when special needs, beyond the normal need for law enforcement, make the warrant and probable-cause requirement impracticable.'" He then goes on to argue that "We have found such 'special needs' to exist in the public-school context. There the warrant requirement 'would unduly interfere with the maintenance of the swift and informal disciplinary procedures [that are] needed, 'and strict adherence to the requirement that searches be based upon probable cause' would undercut 'the substantial need of teachers and administrators for freedom to maintain order in the schools.'