Essay On The Fourth Amendment

“The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides, the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized" (“Fourth Amendment,” n.d., para .1).

In this case, school officials had reason to believe a physical education teacher was stealing money from students. The school officials decided to have two hidden video cameras installed in the office of the locker room. This particular was shared by other gym teachers, and was where the teachers changed their clothes. A teacher later discovered the cameras and sued. He felt as if their privacy had been violated (Walsh, 2007).

I’m not sure how the school official should have handled this situation from an investigative perspective. A search of the teacher’s personal belongings could have been one way to investigate. However, the major concern here is not the video surveillance itself, but the fact that the video surveillance was held inside the locker room. The officials believed they had reason to place the cameras in the office, but there were other teachers to think about.
I think the teachers’ privacy was violated.
The cameras were placed inside the office of the locker room and not in the actual locker. However, the teachers changed their clothes in the office. Regardless, of whether the teachers were given designated areas to change their clothes, does not justify the placement of surveillance cameras without their knowledge. Although, this was an attempt to investigate the teacher, the school officials should have made the teachers aware of the cameras. If the teachers were aware of the cameras, they could’ve made the decision to continue to change in the office or in another
area.

In a similar case an employee of a public university felt as if her constitutional rights had been violated as well. She was videotaped stealing money from the box office at the university. The employee was not warned about the video camera. Although, it was hidden the court ruled that her constitutional rights had not been violated. The court came to this conclusion on the facts that the employee’s work area was in open view by her co-workers and the public, and she handled money (Walsh, 2007).

Even though I believe the privacy of the other teachers involved was violated, the fact of the matter is the that the school officials were presented with a situation that needed to be handled. If they had conducted a search of the teachers personal belongings, there was still no way to prove whether the money belonged to the teacher or to the student. We now live in an era where video surveillance is becoming more common, and employees use video cameras to keep tabs on their employers on a daily basis. Although, informing employees of video surveillance may not be necessary in all cases, perhaps employees should notify their employees of any changes in monitoring and surveillance to avoid the risk of a law suit or violating an employees constitutional rights (Walsh.com)

Fourth Amendment. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2016, from https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/fourth_amendment