{"id":58110,"date":"2024-06-17T15:17:17","date_gmt":"2024-06-17T20:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=58110"},"modified":"2024-06-18T10:56:26","modified_gmt":"2024-06-18T15:56:26","slug":"e-d-ky-mere-school-employee-conduct-search-of-coworkers-purse-not-state-actors-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=58110","title":{"rendered":"E.D.Ky.: Mere school employee conduct search of coworker&#8217;s purse not &#8220;state actors&#8221; for \u00a7 1983"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A couple of school employees who suspected another of being under the influence of prescription medications searched her purse. They were not \u201cstate actors\u201d for \u00a7 1983. As school employees, they had a heightened duty to protect the children. <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.kyed.98591\/gov.uscourts.kyed.98591.95.0.pdf\">Lawson v. Creely<\/a>, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 105154 (E.D. Ky. June 13, 2024):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cIf you see something, say something.\u201d This slogan embodies a responsibility that we, as Americans, must persistently weigh in a twenty-first century world rife with uncertainty. Contemporaneously, the United States Constitution specifically guarantees us the liberty to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. U.S. Const. amend. IV. Thus, there are times where our responsibility to \u201csay something\u201d comes into tension with another\u2019s protected liberties. This case exemplifies that tension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What happens, then, when two school employees suspect that their colleague is under the influence of prescription medication, search her bag without permission, and find a firearm inside? And what happens when school board officials find out and want to question the perpetrator? Has the Fourth Amendment been transgressed? Plaintiff Holly Lawson says yes; her colleagues, and the Franklin County Board of Education, say no. Before the Court are cross Motions for Summary Judgment from Ms. Lawson [R. 47; R. 52,] and from Defendants Kayla Creely, Lori Franke, Mark Kopp, and the Board. [R. 30; R. 51.] For the reasons that follow, Ms. Lawson\u2019s motions will be DENIED and the Defendants\u2019 motions will be GRANTED.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A couple of school employees who suspected another of being under the influence of prescription medications searched her purse. They were not \u201cstate actors\u201d for \u00a7 1983. As school employees, they had a heightened duty to protect the children. Lawson &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=58110\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,43,33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-45","category-private-search","category-school-searches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58110","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=58110"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58135,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58110\/revisions\/58135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}