At our school, at the beginning of the year, our principal announced that no teachers were to search students' backpacks, and that if a student needed their backpack searched the teacher should call the office.(It was not until the last week of school that the principal would let teachers actually have the phone number of the office).
The Supreme Court however, stated in 1985, that teachers have in loco parentis rights i.e. they can search any students belongings if they suspect that there is anything in them that interferes with education in any way or is a violation of any rule. This information should be widely disseminated so as to empower teachers by letting students know who is in charge. Instead, our school bought metal detectors and randomly searches students for weapons. A teacher wouldn't need to be random, we have the constitutional right to search anyone at any time.
I thought that this was important information that every teacher should be made aware of so I wrote a letter to UTLA. It of course was never printed. As usual they don't really want teachers to be empowered either.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
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