Description

Expansion of Police Power in Public Schools and the Vanishing Rights of Students

Beger’s article observes that recent school shootings have produced a climate of fear that facilitated an expansion of law enforcement into schools and a constriction of Fourth Amendment rights for public school children. In the name of school safety, lawmakers have made it easier to punish children as adults for a wide range of offenses that were traditionally handled informally by teachers. Moreover, the courts have failed to safeguard the rights of students against arbitrary police power by granting police and school officials greater authority to conduct searches of students, often in the name of creating a drug-free environment.

intelligence/surveillance, schools — Fourth Amendment, drugs, public schools — violence, searches and seizures — United States, United States — police, United States — Supreme Court

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 29, Nos. 1-2 (2002): 119-130