Locker+Searches-Matt

Have you ever been sent to the principal’s office for bad behavior, or given detention for disrupting the class. Well, you’re not the only one who may be breaking the rules in your school. As the protection of students becomes even more of a prime focus in schools, locker searches have been used as a main weapon against those who smuggle illegal items into the school.

When you go to school and open your locker, do you expect your personal belongings to be searched through or sniffed out? These are actions that are being taken to protect students’ well-being. Even though it is nice to think that these precautions are designed to prevent harm, all they manage to do is violate personal rights. Under the Fourth Amendment, you are protected from unreasonable searches unless upon probable cause. This means schools may be violating the Bill of Rights, a government document often taught to students. Schools often try to provide students with a comfortable educational atmosphere, but yet they strip them of every bit of privacy. Privacy is a key factor for anyone to feel safe in any environment, which is why it is vital to give students their privileges.

Within the last decade, the number of high school dropouts and teenage drug users have dramatically increased hand in hand. These eye-opening facts have gained the attention of schools across the nation. To hopefully lower these numbers, schools have used locker searches to prevent the possession of drugs. They somewhat helped to prevent the storage of drugs in school, but most drug users make deals in low traffic areas where they are able to conceal and distribute the drugs without any suspicion. Although locker searches have not accomplished what they were designed to do, they are still being used schools today.

Have you ever heard this remark from your parents?, “Do as I say, not as I do.” Well this seems to be the logic of many school districts across the nation. Teachers and other school administrators have been issued random drug tests, but refused to carry them out because they feel it violates their personal rights. The same school employees who refused the drug tests, are some of those who issued the locker searches. Although the school employees refused the drug tests, students had no say in whether their lockers were searched or not.

Our founding fathers sacrificed their lives in the early years of this country to provide us with the individual freedoms which seem to be slowly taken away. So one must ask, would our founding fathers approve of locker searches? As Patrick Henry would say, “Give me my locker, or give me death.”