Chapter 3 Ethical Issues in School Search and Seizure

Published date25 July 2011
Date25 July 2011
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-3660(2011)0000012006
Pages39-52
AuthorLawrence F. Rossow,Jacqueline A. Stefkovich
CHAPTER 3
ETHICAL ISSUES IN SCHOOL
SEARCH AND SEIZURE
Lawrence F. Rossow and Jacqueline A. Stefkovich
ABSTRACT
Searching public school students has been a Constitutional reality since
the landmark decision New Jersey v. T.L.O. in 1985. The law in this area
of students’ rights has expanded greatly, including everything from locker
searches involving canines to random drug testing of students involved in
sports and extracurricular activities to highly intrusive personal searches.
As recent as April 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the strip
search of a middle school student for ibuprofen was illegal, but because
school authorities would not necessarily have known they were violating
the student’s Constitutional rights, the school was immune from paying
money damages. Thousands of searches of all kinds are conducted every
day in schools across the country. Many of those searches are legal but
not all. Whether legal or not, are those searches ethical? Is an illegal
search of a student per se unethical because it violates the Ethic of Care?
If a search is legal can it nevertheless conform to any standard of Ethic?
Does searching a student violate the Ethic of Care or the Ethic of
Critique?
Leadership in Education, Corrections and Law Enforcement: A Commitment to Ethics,
Equity and Excellence
Advances in Educational Administration, Volume 12, 39–52
Copyright r2011 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved
ISSN: 1479-3660/doi:10.1108/S1479-3660(2011)0000012006
39

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