Posted on 09/20/2006 5:14:15 AM PDT by Puppage
(New Haven-WTNH, Sept. 19, 2006 10:45 PM) _ A student's refusal to walk through a safety detector earns him a trip home.
For some the installation of metal detectors in schools is to better protect those inside.
One New Haven student is refusing to walk the walk, questioning whether his rights are being violated.
The district says it is like the right to enter a courtroom or get on a plane. It's new policy to keep young people safe.
For this New Haven student it's all about his fourth amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.
Nick Evans is getting a lesson in the legality of school policy.
The 16-year-old was sent home after refusing to walk through a metal detector and be searched as he entered Career High School.
"They haven't done this properly. There's not policy stating that I have to," says Evans.
The high school junior is challenging the New Haven District's recent decision to implement added security measures in the building last week.
"The handbook dictating district policy states they need reasonable grounds to search me."
No where in the handbook, he says, does it spell out anything about random searches or the use of metal detectors.
"I'd like to see them actually making this legal."
But a spokesperson for the District says the Superintendent has the right to make changes in what he considers to be emergency situations. The increased security comes after a violent summer in the Elm City and the deadly shootings of a 13-year old girl and boy.
"The Superintendent has the authority in the event of an emergency to enact directives and right here he believes it's important right now to expand what we are doing in terms of security for all students in the high school," says Susan Weisselberg, New Haven Public Schools.
The district admits it has no written policy on its latest measures but says that's about to change.
"We are adopting a formal policy. We will have the first reading by the Board of Ed Monday night," says Weisselberg.
For the schools, metal detectors and student searches are about keeping kids safe.
Nick Evans says he'll follow the policies as long as they are within the boundaries of the law.
"I would if it's a good sound legal policy. If they try to trample 4th amendments rights... ah getting shaky," says Evans.
Nick Evans says he will go to school tomorrow because he doesn't want to miss his classes, however he's plans to be vigilant in making sure the district follows through.
There is also no formal written policy for the use of metal detectors at Hill House or Wilbur Cross High School but the district says that will change too.
i hope not, Schools are not prisons with tiny little windows and lock downs...
Future Team Leader of the "You want fries with that?" career choice.
What's that got to do with the applicability of the Constitution to minors?
The ends justify the means. don'tcha know...
We have a metal detector at the Courthouse where I live. There are 3 police officers who sit at this detecter and twiddle their thumbs the better part of the day.
Now lets say a person who wanted to commit an illegal act and shoot someone in the courthouse came in one day. he is carrying a pistol concealed in his pocket. He waits in the line at the detecter and when his turn comes up he pulls out this pistol and before any of these 3 can get out their weapons shoots all 3. It wouldnt be any trouble at all. There is no way they could respond fast enough to stop him. The person inside he was after would be warned of course and probably would get away, but the men at the detecter are merely cannon fodder.
Think of this as a school where an unarmed teacher is sitting at the unit. What has the detecter done but get this teacher shot? The detecter would barely slow down the killer.
I don't understand your question. Are you saying that public schools are Constitution-free zones?
But being forced to go to school is OK.
At least he didn't manage to get a squirt gun into the school... He'd be in lockdown for the rest of his natural life.
Hey, is there something going on at the nations border?
Do tenth graders have the right to bear arms?
He will lose. This has passed court muster as well as dog searches and piss tests. Whine on you little loser punk puke.
A student's refusal to walk through a safety detector earns him a trip home.
Do tenth graders have the right to bear arms?
Vernonia School v Acton (515 US 646 [1995]), when the court again used in loco parentis, a lowered expectation of privacy for athletes, and the need for deterrence of drug use, particularly among athletes, as justifications for forced testing. Said the Court: "Fourth Amendment rights, no less than First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, are different in public schools than elsewhere; the "reasonableness" inquiry cannot disregard the schools' custodial and tutelary responsibility for children."
This is SOOOOOOoooooo old legally. It has already been decided as legal.
It is not unreasonable to consider the safety of each person inside the school, especially when the school is liable.
Next issue.
>>The elephant in the closet in this situation is that public schools have become dangerous prisons.
Ding!
A great example of that, here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1704759/posts
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