Locker Searches Essay, Research Paper

The IV amendment states ?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…? This means that a person will not have their private property

searched or taken without a warrant or probable cause. Therefore, random locker

searches are illegal, against civil rights, and wrong because, if they are done

randomly, they are done to students who may or may not have a reason to be

searched and if they do not, its against the law and unconstitutional. Although

the lockers are the property of the school, the contents within are not. The

administrators should not be allowed to go through the lockers purchased by the

students for a whole year. The items in the lockers are the private property of

the students and therefore should not be handled, looked at, inspected,

confiscated, or otherwise by the administration. Modern day schools are not run

by the doctrine of loco parentis, which stated that ? school officials were

given the right, duty, and responsibility to act in the place of a parent.?

This meant that administration can search students and take things from them

that they considered ?inappropriate? and they could do so without a warrant

or ?probable cause? or ?reasonable suspicion.? Which does allow the

administration to search a locker or student if they is a ?reasonable

suspicion? that the student might have something illegal, but if a random

locker search is random then there is no ?reasonable suspicion,? and with no

?reasonable suspicion? or a warrant, than the locker search is illegal. A

school is run by the constitution and the laws stated in it, and random locker

searches are a blatant violation of the rights promised to the people in the

constitution of the United States. In conclusion, random locker searches are

unconstitutional, and should not be practiced by the administration. It violates

student(s) rights, and constitutional rights. These types of practices should be

outlawed.