Chapter 3 Ethical Issues in School Search and Seizure

• Published date: 25 July 2011
• Date: 25 July 2011
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-3660(2011)0000012006
• Pages: 39-52
• Author: Lawrence 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

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