LAW WISE
Published by the Kansas Bar Foundation Editor: Gayle B. Larkin, Attorney at Law, Lawrence Coordinators: Ron Keefover, Kansas Supreme Court and Art Thompson, Kansas Bar Foundation
October 1999

• Students Rights Under the Fourth Amendment
• Law Matters Newsletter
• ABA Law Day Awards
• Law 2000: Understanding the Role of Law in Society
• Case on Point
• Resources at the Law-Related Education Inventory
• Lesson Plan 1
• Lesson Plan 2
• Terrific Technology for Teachers
• Court of Appeals Welcomes You
• Mock Trial Competition
• 'For the Record' now available

Students’ Rights Under the Fourth Amendment

What are students’ rights under the Fourth Amendment in the school setting? The answer to that question is quite simple. Every one, including students at school, are protected against unreasonable searches and seizures. However, as detailed below, the strict rule and exceptions to the rule are eased when dealing with school searches.

The Fourth Amendment provides: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons . . . against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, . . . and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." Id. The Supreme Court has counseled, however, that Fourth Amendment rights are not absolute, the Fourth Amendment is a guarantee against only unreasonable searches and seizures. In that light, the Supreme Court has time and again observed that searches and seizures conducted outside the judicial process, without prior approval by judge or magistrate, are per se unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment -- subject only to a few specifically established and well delineated exceptions. Some of the exceptions to the requirement of a warrant include when a person gives consent to the search, when the contraband is in plain view, when the evidence will be lost or destroyed, and when a person is arrested.

The case discussed in the Case on Point, New Jersey vs. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325 (1985), is the only United State Supreme Court case that addresses what rights students have when dealing with searches at school. One rule of law that came out of T.L.O., is that the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures applies to searches conducted by public school officials. T.L.O., Syl ¶ 1. However, in order to balance school children’s expectation of privacy with the school’s need to maintain an environment in which learning can take place, the strict rule and exceptions are eased in cases of school searches. Id, Syl. ¶ 2. Thus, searches by school officials do not need to be based upon probable cause that the student has or is violating the law. Id. "Rather, the legality of a search of a student should depend simply on the reasonableness, under all the circumstances, of the search." Id. The bottom line is still the same, however. In order for school officials to conduct searches of students’ possessions, the searches must be reasonable.

    Case on Point    

In keeping with our focus on the Fourth Amendment, the Case on Point is New Jersey vs. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325 (1985). In this case, a teacher at a New Jersey high school caught a 14-year-old freshman (T.L.O.) smoking cigarettes in a school bathroom in violation of a school rule. The teacher escorted the student to the Principal’s office. During a meeting with the teacher and Assistant Vice Principal, T.L.O. denied smoking. The Assistant Vice Principal demanded to see T.L.O.’s purse. When the Assistant Vice Principal opened T.L.O.’s purse, he found a package of cigarettes and a package of cigarette rolling papers that are commonly associated with the use of marijuana. The Assistant Vice Principal continued searching the purse and located some marijuana, a pipe, plastic bags, a fairly substantial amount of money, an index card containing a list of students who owed T.L.O. money, and two letters that implicated T.L.O. in selling marijuana. Based upon the Assistant Vice Principal’s discovery during the search of T.L.O.’s purse, the state of New Jersey brought juvenile offender charges against T.L.O. After her motion to suppress the evidence was denied, T.L.O. was adjudicated as a juvenile offender. After several lower court appeals, T.L.O.’s case ended up in the United States Supreme Court. That court held that (1) the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures applies to searches conducted by school officials and is not limited to searches carried out by law enforcement officers, (2) school children have legitimate expectations of privacy, and (3) the search in this case was not unreasonable for Fourth Amendment purposes.

   ABA Law Day Awards

Each year, the ABA holds three contests in conjunction with law day.

First, the Outstanding Law Day Activity Award is designed to recognize outstanding state and local law day programs. Awards are given to programs that have found creative ways of reaching out to schools and the community, and have forged strong partnerships with other groups to deliver the message about the benefits of the rule of law. Entries must be postmarked by June 10.

Second, the Judge Edward R. Finch Law Day Speech Award focuses on original speeches that clearly enrich the public's understanding of law and appreciation of the role law plays in our society. They now accept video or audio tapes, as well as transcripts, for consideration. Entries must be postmarked by June 10.

Finally, the Images of Freedom Student Photography Award is a photography competition allows students ages 12 to 18 to join in the Law Day celebration by submitting original photos depicting what freedom means to them. The Images of Freedom Student Photography Competition is run in cooperation with the National Newspaper Foundation (NNF), the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) Foundation, and the Newspaper in Education (NIE) programs of local newspapers throughout the United States. The competition gives students the opportunity to create powerful images that express how they view freedom and the laws that protect them and their communities. Entries for this competition must be received by March 1. For more information about these awards, contact the ABA or visit their Web site at www.abanet.org/publiced/.

The ABA has a free newsletter that contains information on law related education. Law Matters, which reports on developments, ideas, programs, and resources in the field of public education about the law, is published three times each year (winter, summer, fall). For information on ordering, contact the ABA at (312) 988-5735 or abapubed@abanet.org.

To help young citizens learn how to effectively participate in their representative democracy, the ABA Division for Public Education and the Close Up Foundation are collaborating to offer high school students "Law 2000: Understanding the Role of Law in Society," a week long program in Washington, D.C., from December 5, 1999, through December 12, 1999. Through seminars and study visits to government offices and historical sites, participants will get a close-up look at the democratic process and develop a deeper understanding of our nation’s heritage, meeting and talking with those who enforce, shape, and challenge laws on a daily basis. Any high school student with a passing grade point average may apply. A letter of recommendation from a teacher, guidance counselor, or other school official attesting to the student’s leadership ability or potential is also required. Teachers and other interested adults are welcome to take part. For further information and an application, call Stacy Creech at (800) 256-7387, extension 610, or check out the web site at http://www.abanet.org/publiced/law2000info.html
The accompanying graphic is from the ABA web site

Materials: Copy of the Constitution.

Procedure: Have students imagine that you have taken the entire class to the library to do research on the Constitution. The girls take their purses with them. At the end of class, one girl screams, "Someone took my wallet!" The only person who could have taken it was in the class.

Break the class into six groups. They are to answer questions posed to them as if they were (1) the guilty student, (2) an innocent boy, (3) an innocent girl, (4) a girl with a controlled substance on her person, (5) a boy with chewing tobacco and cigarettes (illegal in school), (6) the girl who lost the wallet.

Pose the following questions for brainstorming and consensus: (1) Should a search of everyone occur? Explain. (2) Who should conduct the search, if one does take place? Does it make a difference? (3) Decide what you will do if a search of all is conducted. (4) Is the Constitution involved here? Explain.

When students are ready, have each group answer question A and then do the same for questions B-D. You should generate "I'm innocent and have nothing to fear." Explore that with the students (Should law enforcement be allowed to search when/where they want because innocent people have nothing to fear? Wouldn't that cut down on crime?) You should also get the clever criminal who dumps the wallet and hides the money in a book. (How would the class feel having been subjected to a search that ultimately reveals nothing?) Ask the innocent girl or boy how they would feel if coincidentally they have similar denominations on them. Would they still be comfortable with a search? What about the students who possess illegal items? Should they get in trouble for what is discovered on them?

Finally, pursue the constitutional angle. What does the Constitution say? Should a search of everyone be conducted immediately? Does the Fourth Amendment apply to students? Do school officials need a warrant? Are they "police"? What would be the most efficient way the solve this? Is that the most just way? Raise the concept of individual freedoms conflicting with society's needs.

Tying it All Together: Students should now appreciate the constitutional provisions of the Fourth Amendment and how the Court can take the clear language and find exceptions that pass constitutional muster. Have them relive their simulation and the circumstances of T.L.O. Can they defend being treated differently in a school setting? An essay on some aspect of one of the balancing acts could tie it all together. Or the guest visit by an administrator or school lawyer or ACLU attorney would be a fine culminating activity. Perhaps they could be given the simulation and brainstorm the reactions.

Terrific Technology for Teachers

Street Law now has two terrific Web sites: www.streetlaw.org/ and www.streetlaw.com/. Available at www.streetlaw.org/samplelesson.html are sample lesson plans. The lesson plans are in PDF format and require Acrobat Reader in order to download. Some of the lesson plan topics include: police as community teachers, smart teens make safer communities, and teen parents and the law curriculum. At www.streetlaw.com/supersites.html, you will find descriptions of connections to fourteen sources of law related education information, including "Oyez, Oyez, Oyez", The Supreme Court site at the Washington Post," and "West’s Legal Dictionary."

You can now order mock trial scripts and guidelines from The American Bar Association for an approximately $5.00. To view the mock trials available click on www.abanet.org/publiced.mock.html.

Court of Appeals Welcomes You

The Kansas Court of Appeals, a ten-member, intermediate appellate court sits in three-judge panels throughout the state. Every three weeks, hearings are conducted at four or five locations throughout the state. The Court of Appeals regularly sits in Wichita, Topeka, and Kansas City. Additionally, the court also sits at other locations throughout the state. The court is pleased to have students attend the hearings. The current dockets and the location of the hearings are posted at the Judicial Branch Internet home page. To see if the court is sitting near you, click on www.kscourts.org and follow the link from the Court of Appeals.

The Kansas Supreme Court is the highest court in the state, and includes seven members. Students also are welcome at oral arguments before the Supreme Court. The high court holds its hearings only in Topeka. The Supreme Court’s docket is also linked from the home page.

If you have any questions concerning the Kansas appellate courts, or if you would like to bring your class to either the Kansas Supreme Court or the Kansas Court of Appeals, please contact Ron Keefover, Education and Information Officer of the Office of Judicial Administration, 301 West 10th Avenue, Topeka, Kansas 66612-1507, (785) 296-4872. You can also contact Mr. Keefover via e-mail at keefoverr@kscourts.org.