Law enforcement officials can "rationalize" all they want, but I would protest any routine search based on principle and the 4th amendment. Then again, who gives a damn about the bill of rights, especially when it comes to current drug law/policy. The innocent have no obligation to prove their innocence by allowing a search. Of course, the there is little 4th amendment protection for these students.

I know that police are allowed to search lockers without probable cause if the school says it's okay, since those belong to the school and not technically to the students. But I didn't realize that they're also allowed to search backpacks and purses, which is kind of frightening.

I agree that this isn't going to deter anyone -- they're just going to keep the drugs in their cars, or instead of smoking up at school they're going to leave school and do it elsewhere, which sort of defeats the purpose.

No matter what the probable cause (if any), the way this was handled was totally out of line.

This has nothing to do with the Patriot Act -- they were looking for drugs, not terrorists.

Police officers should draw their wepons only when confronted with opposing wepons, or if they are sure there are known felons inside -- or some equally dangerous situation. Going into a crowd like that with pistols drawn is reckless.

I suspect that city, police department, school system and principal will be facing lawsuits for a long time to come.

They deserve it.

It's damned fortunate that nobody was hurt.

It is so interesting that this happed this week when the Constitutional Rights Foundation chose this topic as their Mock Trial topic this year. The CRF does a mock trial competition for high school students nationally and the competition is going on right now. Last Tuesday night I judged the first round in the competition. The law in this area is very interesting. The students do have a right to privacy and a right to be free from illegal searches and seizures but the question is whether the police had probable cause to search the way they did. It seems from the information available in the media that the tactics used were quite extreme. I am not a big fan of scare tactics of this sort and doubt any court out here would be.

LD

Unfortunat the Patriot Act have been used by the government for cases that has nothing to do with terrorism.

It was actually Plano East! LOL! That's really scary that you know that!

And, James, we are talking about students here...UNDER AGE minors, who for the most part, can't even buy a lottery ticket or cigarettes legally! Furthermore, this was a public school, owned by the people! There had to be some level of cooperation with the administration before the raid occurred. Your idea, with some merit, is not even in the same league with what this thread is referring to. This is a whole different sector of society, and took place in a public building. I'm not some pro-nazi government lover, but it seems that things have only continued to go down hill. I like to think that somebody is doing something about it!

aj

For the non-locals knowledge:

PESH (what the locals call Plano East Senior High) and Plano were somewhat notorious in the early 90s for their drug problems, hence the 'Pharmacy' nickname.

Now there is a third high school in Plano - Plano West Senior High (aka the 'Willow Bend Private School', as some wags have already started calling it).

And yes, they still 'mark territory' during football season! (Almost any light pole within the city limits of Plano is fair game and marked with small signs or ribbons in the respective school colors: black and gold for PESH, maroon and white for Plano, blue and white for Plano West.)

Lol,

Well, i had a couple buddies at A&M that were from Dallas. 2 from Plano, a couple from Highland Park, couple from Lake Highlands and a pledge brother from Mesquite.

So, i'd heard Plano referred to as the pharmacy a lot. :)

Kitso
KS 361

LMAO! That is so true about the football stuff, we are serious about it! The MAJOR drug stuff...the bust I was referring to...was actually in 1998, the year my brother graduated. I graduated in 1995, and I don't remember any major stuff happening...and I was the principal's 'aide'. That was the same year that Plano East made the biggest comeback in High School Footbal History during the playoff game...only to loose to a major kick return. Sorry, got off the subject there...just call me 'High School Harry'.

aj

Even though the search was a little extreme, SC is known for the behavior problems of students in classroom, drugs, gangs, etc. We are one of the few states that still has corporal punishment to deal with behavior problems that have just gotten out of control. With all of the incidences of students bringing guns to school that do not make the headlines, I would feel better having the police raid my school as a student than to risk getting shot over some drug deal gone horribly wrong. Now that I am on the other end teaching, I am grateful for the random locker searches, metal detectors, and the implementation of uniforms.

It's not the search that's the problem in my mind. That has happened at a number of our local high schools here in the Denver area.

My problem is the Police charging into the school with drawn wepons.

I have a great respect for law enforcement, but that's reckless.

I can see how this can be extreme, but it does work. My high school had a huge drug problem for years. There were always undercover agents posing as high schoolers to try and buy drugs or weapons from other students on campus. I remember when I was in high school I felt very betrayed because one was a "friend" of mine and it ended up being a fake. BUT, they always ended up with lots of arrests. We also had tons of locker raids, dog sniffers and even backback raids. Over the years the problem of drugs on campus has gone down. Some do get scared because they don't want to get caught and of course there will always be those that don't and will.

For my high school I think it worked. I know that they still do these also. In fact they just had another under cover agent catch some last week.

I went to high school at Goose Creek. Scary huh?

... yet another example of why it pays to do your homework ahead of time. :rolleyes: