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A bill approved by the U.S. House yesterday would require schooldistricts around the country to establish policies making it easier forteachers and school officials to conduct wide scale searches ofstudents.Â* These searches could take the form of pat-downs, bagsearches, or strip searches depending on how administrators interpretthe law.
The Student Teacher Safety Act of 2006 (HR 5295) would require anyschool receiving federal funding--essentially every public school--toadopt policies allowing teachers and school officials to conductrandom, warrantless searches of every student, at any time, on theflimsiest of pretexts. Saying they suspect that one student might havedrugs could give officials the authority to search every student in thebuilding.
DPA supporters and others who opposed this outrageous bill calledtheir members of Congress this week to express their disapproval.However, House leaders circumvented the usual legislative procedure tobring the bill to a quick vote. It did not pass through the committeeprocess, but went straight to the House floor. There, it was passed bya simple voice vote, so constituents cannot even find out how theirRepresentative voted.
The bill moves next to the Senate, but it is unlikely to be considered there this session.
Bill Piper, DPA's director of national affairs, said, "It looks likethis bill was rushed to the House floor to help out the sponsor, Rep.Geoff Davis (R-KY/4th), who is in a tight re-election race. This votelets him say he's getting things done in Washington. But I would besurprised to see a similar push in the Senate."
HR 5295 is opposed in its current form by several groups, includingthe Drug Policy Alliance, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, the ACLU,the American Federation of Teachers, the National Parent TeacherAssociation, the American Association of School Administrators, and theNational School Boards Association.
DPA will be watching the bill so that if and when it does come up again, this wide array of opponents can mobilize to stop it.
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