Student's Lockers

[Kathryn]

With recent events in America where students have been harmed on school grounds, there are now calls to suggest that all schools randomly search students lockers.

Recent studies reveal that over 270, 000 students in the United States alone bring guns into the classroom each day.

A locker search is simply the act of opening a locker and looking through its contents. Depending on the state, administration may choose to search one, several or all lockers. The search may begin when a drug dog indicates that there may be some contraband such as drugs in the locker, when a student reports concern of what another student may have in his locker, or when the administration calls for a random search.

[voltage]

This is kinda stupid. If the kid is carrying the gun why search the locker? Why not search the students? Why not outlaw paperclips? Those are weapons! I think were too busy looking for side effects to target the problem. Where do the guns come from? If you want to crack down on weapons on schools, you need to go to the kid not search his locker.

[Kathryn]

Well maybe we suggest that this implimentation extends to checking students bags and themselves. The process would be completly random. Involving each students name being entered on a database and maybe once a week or so, a handful of students get searched.
Of course, hopefully, most of the students will be innocent from carrying weapons, drugs and other objects not acceptable. But wont it make at least some of the student that indeed do have these object feel that the school is cracking down. And they may, feel that their name could be pulled out any day now so not bring them to school- thus creating a safer learning environment.

In all reality, is a student really going to hold up a class with a paperclip? There obviously will be a measure of what is safe and what isnt.

[ixthusdan]

I support this. A school locker is not a possession, a home, or anything personal. I also do not beleive that schools are in any way a microcosm of society. In schools, if one fails at one's responsibilities, one is placed in meetings and scolded. In society, one is fired and one must work or starve. (A better motivator.)

[Paragon]

I support it too. You never know what a student will do with a firearm, sometimes they keep them in the trunk of their car (like two teenagers down here who were just caught with a stolen M-16 and over 120 rounds of ammunition in their trunk).

Lockers are school property. If students don't want their "personal privacy" violated, all they have to do is not put personal things in their lockers, and use them for storing books and supplies for class, as they were intended.

Either that or do what I did in highschool, and carry everything in your bag, and never use a locker. Gave me some pretty strong shoulders. The trick is making sure the bookbag's straps are tight, not loose.

[bbqsandwich]

First, this number is probably based on surveys of students. Sorry, but based on my own experience I can say that the surveys are not at all empirical.

Second, sure, kids brings weapons to school all the time. The smart ones don't keep stuff in their lockers; most schools (at least in my old district) have had random locker searches as a part of standard policy since the '90s or eariler.

When I was in middle school, one of my friends carved his name into the wooden benches in the locker rooms with a buck knife. When I was in high school, kids carried all kinds of stuff.

Locker searches? Sure, why not...school property, etc. But car searches? This is the reason I never ever parked on campus, even when I had a car. I parked a mile off-campus and walked.

A lot of things I carried in high school could have been considered contraband, both in my car and on my person. Searching for guns, or anything similar, leads to expulsion when "contraband" is found. A friend of mine was expelled for having a pocket knife on a key chain. Another friend was expelled for having caffiene pills. Yet another friend was expelled for having a fishing tackle box in his car while it was parked on campus.

Why can't students just refrain from having contraband? Imagine a student has asthma, or some other relatively minor illness, but has to keep it off-record for various reasons. I think it's stupid that if a kid is having an asthma attack, he has to get a pass signed by his teacher, walk to the front office 1/4 of a mile away, sign in, get permission, and then walk over to the next building and wait in line to see the clinic staff in order to use an inhaler. Ditto for anaphylactic shock kits -- should those kids have to swell up and die over a bee sting or an ant bite while waiting for a "trained" clinic staffer to administer a life-saving EpiPen dose?

(typographical errors edited)

[webmaren]

I am very opposed to this idea. The schools have been given too much in the area of student privacy. We have next to none. I am disgusted by the laundry list of powers that have been rolled out in the aftermath of New Jersey v. TLO. I only agree with certain parts of that case. School administrators should need to have good reason to search students. It's not enough to say "Oh, you're a teenager. Some teenagers smoke pot. We are now searching you for pot." At the same time, I do not believe that they should have to obtain a warrant. The administrators should be able to decide if they have probable cause, and then act on it immediately. But when they have found what they are looking for, just like with police, they are done the search. TLO should have been punished for the cigarettes. The marijuana should not have been discovered, unless they received a tip on it.
Thus, students should be able to challenge searches they believe were unfounded. It's not fair to them for all of their privacy to be stripped away arbitrarily.

And with the point that Voltage made, I agree. Our society has failed miserably in this respect. We must treat the core problems instead of just covering up the symptoms. Why do teenagers have guns? Well, honestly, it's because guns are an American quality. From the beginning of our nation, Americans have treasured their guns as a symbol of protection from government. Guns reduce nonviolent crime. Violent crime does not occur as much as we think it is. This is largely thanks to Ted Turner. Now that there is 24-hour news, any situation like that gets monumental press coverage for days or even weeks. Yet nobody covers the story of the school that hasn't had a gun violation in 10 years. Nobody covers the school that graduated 15 recipients of Nobel Peace prizes. Because all the bad news sells.

[Paragon]

Searching lockers and searching a student's person are two very different things.

[bbqsandwich]

paragon said:

Searching lockers and searching a student's person are two very different things.

Agreed. How do you feel about searching students' cars, though?

[Admin]

bbqsandwich said:

paragon said:

Searching lockers and searching a student's person are two very different things.

Agreed. How do you feel about searching students' cars, though?

To be honest, I would see that as a violation of personal privacy. Locker searches make sense since lockers are school property. But a car is usually owned by the person who drives it or their parents, and therefore not the property of the school, city, state, etc.

On a more personal note though, I would enjoy the benefit of having lockers. I understand what Paragon was saying earlier. My backpack is very heavy.. Alot of what I carry around I don't even need when I get home but I do need at school and so have to carry it around. It would be alot more beneficial to keep all the items I don't need at school in a locker. But I see exactly where the school is coming from in not having them, especially living here in southern Cali.

[bbqsandwich]

My high school didn't allow students to use lockers...and since I had a lot of extracurricular activities, that was kinda rough. I had to carry an equipment bag and a gym bag around campus all day, plus a backpack with the usual 30 lbs. of text books.

However, if lockers had been available I would not have used them. I do not want people going through my stuff -- wet swim suits, sensitive training equipment, lens cleaner ("contraband"), aerosol deodorant ("contraband"), gatorade ("contraband"), scissors ("contraband"), a stapler ("contraband"), and allergy-related / other prescription medications ("contraband"). In my old school district, it's long been established that everything on school property (from students' pockets to lockers to cars parked on campus) become school property, so I would have had to carry my stuff around anyway. At least when it was in my hand or on my back, I could discourage administrators from digging through it.

[Admin]

bbqsandwich said:

My high school didn't allow students to use lockers...and since I had a lot of extracurricular activities, that was kinda rough. I had to carry an equipment bag and a gym bag around campus all day, plus a backpack with the usual 30 lbs. of text books.

Good to know I'm not alone ;D