Student Freedoms - Assignment Example

Student freedom is one of the most controversial issues that school officials are confronted with in the present day education system, according to Rossow and Stefkovich (2006). This has particularly been the came when it comes to deciding whether to search a student’s belonging or seize a property. Students have often cited the Forth Amendment of the U.S. constitution that bars school administrators from searching or seizing their property. The Fourth Amendment protects American citizens including students from unwarranted search and seizer (Bedden, 2006).

However, there are exceptions to the Fourth Amendment where school administrators should carry a search or seize properties in public schools. The aim of this paper is to analyze the limits that should be placed upon search and seizer in public schools. Students’ freedom has been a controversial issue in the present day education system. Bedden (2006) attributes the controversy to the fact that the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. constitution protects students from unreasonable search and seizer.

Bedden argues that even though the Fourth Amendment protects the students’ privacy rights, it has opened an avenue of misbehaviors among students in public schools. According to education experts, students expect the right of privacy in their lockers and as such, lockers ought to be protected against unreasonable search. . In addition, they are responsible for instilling discipline in students to ensure they grow up with high moral standards. However, this can only happen when problems are maintained at a minimum level at school, according to Bedden (2006).

To ensure that students are disciplined, they must have the right to search or seize anything they believe infringes on the school policy or is likely to cause violence or crime. For example, when a student is reasonably suspected of possessing a gun or drugs in class, the law permits school administrators to conduct a search on the locker belonging to the suspected student. This is because some students might use the guns to shoot their fellow students or teachers. This was witnessed when a student shot at his fellow student in Ga school recently and the other witnessed in Atlanta school.

Therefore, as much as the Fourth Amendment protects students from unreasonable search and seizer, the right is not protected when there is a reasonable suspicion or causes that a student posses dangerous weapons that are likely to be used in committing a crime. Therefore, before conducting a search on a student’s locker, teachers must ensure that there is a reasonable cause for doing so. This includes ensuring that there is reasonable cause to suspect a student of violating school policy or likely to commit a crime, suggests Palicz (2011).

The school rules must also be reasonable and compatible with educational purposes. This implies that a random search without any justifiable cause will amount to an infringement of the privacy of a student, which is protected by the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The main case in support of this claim is found in