{"id":427,"date":"2006-10-06T14:46:31","date_gmt":"2006-09-18T06:59:03","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2017-09-17T13:46:08","modified_gmt":"2017-09-17T18:46:08","slug":"en-us-276","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=427","title":{"rendered":"“Student and Teacher Safety Act of 2006”: Permitting more school searches?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Overnight I received an e-mail from the Youth Policy Action Center: Say “No” to More Student Searches \/
\nPosted by: Students for Sensible Drug Policy<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Students for Sensible Drug Policy is asking for your help to stop a bill that would further curtail the rights of students in public schools all across the country. The so-called \u201cStudent and Teacher Safety Act of 2006\u201d (H.R. 5295) would make it easier for teachers and school administrators to search students\u2019 lockers and bags for drugs and other contraband. SSDP needs your help to make sure that this bill never becomes law.<\/p>\n

H.R. 5295 would allow school officials to search dozens or even hundreds of students based on the mere suspicion that just one student brought drugs to school. This kind of justification allowed police officers to storm a high school in Goose Creek, SC, in 2003, forcing dozens of students to the ground and pointing guns directly at their faces during a misguided raid in which no drugs were found.<\/p>\n

This bill is nothing more than another attack on the constitutional rights of young people by the federal government. Students should never have to check their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse door.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The bill can be found on thomas.gov<\/a>. It was introduced on May 4, 2006. The “congressional findings” are in \u00a7 2.<\/p>\n

SEC. 3. SEARCHES ON COLORABLE SUSPICION.<\/p>\n

(a) In General– Each State, local educational agency, and school district shall have in effect throughout the jurisdiction of the State, agency, or district, as the case may be, policies that ensure that a search described in subsection (b) is deemed reasonable and permissible.<\/p>\n

(b) Searches Covered– A search referred to in subsection (a) is a search by a full-time teacher or school official, acting on any colorable suspicion based on professional experience and judgment, of any minor student on the grounds of any public school, if the search is conducted to ensure that classrooms, school buildings, and school property remain free of all weapons, dangerous materials, or illegal narcotics.<\/p>\n

SEC. 4. ENCOURAGEMENT TO PROTECT STUDENTS AND TEACHERS.<\/p>\n

(a) In General- A State, local educational agency, or school district that fails to comply with section 3 shall not, during the period of noncompliance, receive any Safe Schools and Citizenship Education funds after fiscal year 2008.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The sponsor is Geoff Davis<\/a>, R-KY4, and his home page today shows a news release posting from September 15 about hearings this week.<\/p>\n

First question: Where is the federal interest? Another Republican interested in more federal interference in our lives? No, re-election politics. He has an opponent<\/a> for re-election. Just Google him.<\/p>\n

Second question: When his staffers wrote this thing, why did they use “colorable suspicion” instead of reasonable suspicion? Do they intend it be defined to provide less protection than the Fourth Amendment, which already permits broad searches in schools?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

b2evGMco.b2evALnk.b2WPAutP.b2evSmil Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"pingsdone","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=427"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29233,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427\/revisions\/29233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}