Classrooms’ Contraband Searches Violate Rights, Appeals Court Says
An Arkansas school district’s practice of searching the pockets, purses, and backpacks of randomly selected classrooms of students for drugs and other contraband violates students’ right to privacy, a federal appeals court has ruled.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, in St. Louis, ruled that the Little Rock district’s practice of requiring entire classrooms to submit to the searches violated the Fourth Amendment right of its 7th graders to be free from unreasonable searches.
The practice was challenged in a lawsuit brought on behalf of a student identified in court papers as Jane Doe, who during the 1999-2000 school year, along with her classmates, was ordered to leave the classroom after emptying their pockets and placing their belongings, including backpacks and...
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