Anarchduke writes:
In what amounts to a victory for the rights of children, the Supreme Court ruled that the stripsearch given to then 13 year old Savana Redding by school officials.
In a near unanimous decision, the Supreme Court has drawn a line in deciding how far school administration officials can go. Since children have limited constitutional rights, and the Justices often favor school interest over students, this is a clear indication of how far overboard the school actually went.
According to the decision,"When suspected facts must support the categorically extreme intrusiveness of a search down to an adolescent's body, petitioners' general belief that students hide contraband in their clothing falls short; a reasonable search that extensive calls for suspicion that it will succeed."
Justice Thomas dissented, believing that the fourth amendment protections should not cover even this level of intrusion. His prime concern is the decision "grants judges sweeping authority to second-guess [officials]" and that it changes the line at which the court had previously drawn regarding the fourth amendment restrictions handed down to schools. According to Thomnas, the Court:
"should return to the common-law doctrine of in loco parentis under which 'the judiciary wasreluctant to interfere in the routine business of school administration, allowing schools and teachers to set andenforce rules and to maintain order.' Morse v. Frederick, 551 U. S. 393, 414 (2007)."
IANAL, but the ruling in my opinion didn't go far enough to prevent the abuse of power by school officials. The LA Times agrees, and suggests that schools shouldn't be put into the position of deciding these issues, but that in the case of drugs allegedly secret inside the underwear of children, "they would be spared such decisions by laws in every state banning strip searches by school officials. If such searches are needed to protect schools and students, they should be done by police.
