Search
and
Seizure:
House
Bill
Aiming
to
Lower
Standards
for
Student
Searches
Introduced
5/26/06
A bill whose sole purpose is to lower the threshold for allowing schools to search students' lockers and bags for drugs and other contraband has been introduced in the US House of Representatives. Sponsored by Rep. Geoff Davis (R-KY), Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL), and Rep. Randy Kuhl (R-NY), the "Student and Teacher Safety Act of 2006," or HR 5295 is concerned only with changing the current "reasonable suspicion" standard for searches to the lower (and entirely fabricated) standard of "colorable suspicion." The proposed legislation sets out findings allegedly demonstrating a real need for more searches of students, the obstacles placed in the path of would-be searchers by the Fourth Amendment's prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures, and a way around those obstacles based on an expansion of the logic of the Supreme Court's 2002 decision allowing schools to drug test students without any particular suspicion. School administrators and teachers face lawsuits if they search students' lockers or possessions without reasonable suspicion, the lawmakers complained. The solution for Rep. Davis and his buddies is to lower the standards. Under the bill, school officials would be able to search a student's locker or possessions "acting on any colorable suspicion based on professional experience and judgment." In other words, a hunch, as Students for Sensible Drug Policy put it in a release denouncing the bill. "Essentially, a teacher would need nothing more than a hunch in order to search a student's locker or possessions," the campus-based drug reform group noted. "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." The bill would also force school districts to enact such policies or lose access to federal funds. If a district has not drafted policies allowing for searches based only on "colorable suspicion," it will not "receive any Safe Schools and Citizenship Education funds after fiscal year 2008." SSDP is calling for a congressional letter-writing campaign to kill this bill now. Click here to send a pre-written letter (you can edit or rewrite it) to your representative.
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