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.
10th graders are people as well as 7 year olds. Neither have a legal right to bear arms. The rights enshrined in the first ten amendments are not absolute. You do not have the right to commit perjury or produce child porn, both examples of speech and press.
Typically, I would say that he's on shaky legal ground.
BUT - kids are compelled by law to be at school, and thus compelled to submit to metal detector scans and searches.
I never thought about it.....I think that it will be interesting to see the outcome.
You are right , they chased this guy into the basement. Had he been a committed psycho with a bomb or a real mission he could have caused some serious damage
Let me ask you a question - when you go inside your house, do you close a door? Isn't that a violation of your right against illegal imprisonment? In fact, isn't it a basic violation of your freedom to pursue life, liberty and happiness? The philosophical question is whether or not your door, the windows, the walls, even the very roof over your house are there to protect you and yours against the elements, those who might wish to harm you and your family and/or take the things that you have worked to earn the money to buy? Or, is the door a symbol of the failure of government to provide you with a perfect environment against nature, crime and criminals? Is the door there to preserve your privacy and keep others out, or does it exist to force you to tacitly volunteer to imprison yourself within the walls of the prison you bought and paid for?
I don't mind the kid asking questions - but THIS question shows only one thing . . . . he has failed to learn his history and what rights are all about. First, he's a kid and a not too bright one, at that. Secondly, I sincerely doubt that this kid can tell you what is guaranteed by the BOR, much less explain the meaning and intent of each.
Finally, I challenge you AND this kid to show how the metal detectors constitute either a search OR a seizure, much less one that is illegal. The detector conducts no search - it merely detects the presence of a significant amount of metal in a concentrated area; much like a smoke detector detects the presence of a certain amount of smoke in a certain, concentrated area. Would you consider a smoke detector as part of an illegal search and seizure? This kid trying to smoke in the boys room at school probably would.
I stand by my response - this kid is a future team leader for the "You want fries with that?" career option.
Your thinking on this is inverted. The Constitution is not a document which grants rights to citizens when they turn 18, or at any other time. It is a document that explicitly limits the actions taken by the government. There is no exception in the Constitution for the government's treatment of minors. If the kid's parents want to restrict his freedoms, search him unreasonably, etc., then they are fully within their rights to do so. The government is not.
The kid is dead on, especially if you read the article.
In order to establish a reasonable search there need to be written guidelines.
Without written guidelines someone who was caught with a weapon could scream 4th amendment and get away with it.
You can't just decide to start searches because you feel like it.
Or brought a gun.
Homeschool bump!
Bump!
Good for this kid.
People voluntarily participate. Students are compelled to attend the government school.
A metal detector without a search policy is useless. In the event of an alarm, the student must be searched, otherwise all false positives must be denied access, and that is just not gonna happen.
All the metal detector does is reduce the number of physical searches that must be employed by pre-screening out the bulk of the students. But, ultimately, the policy is to search students because they have triggered a metal detector. Since 99.99% of these searches will be for false positives, the fact that the metal detector goes off does not really constitute reasonable suspicion.
The presence of these "students" is not only a physical danger to legitimate students, their presence also degrades the quality of teaching that can go on in the classroom, because the majority of the teacher's effort goes toward keeping order rather than education. Most public school classrooms these days are zoos, in case you were unaware, even in "good" suburban public schools.
Why does it not bother you that metal detectors are even required in public schools?
Why does it bother you more that a normal student might object to being treated like a criminal?
I think the founders would have differed on the notion of 16-year-olds having the right to bear arms.
The founding fathers would likely have agreed that adult men should be allowed to keep and bear arms, provided they were white. Never was the intent to allow children to walk about carrying weapons without parental consent.
Is a 16 year old a child?
In today's society? Yes.
In 1787? I imagine that would depend.
I am sure a 16 year in Philly or New York was treated differently that a 14 year old that lived on a farm in Indiana country.
I'd prefer sending my children to schools that prepare them for success, which is why I do not send them to public schools.
The Constitutional angle is all that interested me. As far as I'm concerned, if you don't want your kid searched, then home school him. The public schools have enough on their hands after Columbine.
Now it's MY turn. See my post #44 and please respond to the questions I asked.
Your rationale is irrelevant. You believe that public schools are prisons and public school students are prisoners. There is nothing left to explain.
Public schools, where students are treated like convicts, was the cause of Columbine.
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