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Suetaz

Illegal school searches

Toledo Blade | June 22, 2004 | Editorial

IT APPEARS several Detroit public high schools committed a fascist faux pas by allowing their students to be lined up like criminals in the hallways and frisked by police and security officers. The searches, conducted in at least four schools, were reportedly not instigated by any known or suspected criminal activity. They were just a random pat-down for possible contraband like drugs or guns.
At Mumford High School a search of about 1,800 students turned up no such items.

It is not surprising that the offensive sweeps have resulted in a federal lawsuit against the city, school system, and individual police and security officers. The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit on behalf of three students who say they were frisked and their pockets, purses, and other personal belongings searched without justification.

One student who objected to the mass inspection was arrested for disorderly conduct, according to the ACLU of Michigan. Its complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit, accused the school district of periodically conducting mass searches for guns or drugs "not based on suspected lawbreaking by any one student or group." The civil liberties group says such baseless sweeps are unconstitutional.

"These kinds of policies turn our schoolhouses into jailhouses," agreed Detroit attorney Amos Williams, who joined the ACLU in filing suit. Besides declaring the school searches unconstitutional, the plaintiffs also seek unspecified damages and a ban on future police pat-downs.

And well they should. Because while school security is an ongoing challenge in many urban areas and current protective measures including metal detectors and the presence of police and security officers in buildings are not foolproof, subjecting students to degrading frisks and indiscriminate searches is unacceptable.

"Once you open this door," said ACLU executive director Kary Moss, "it's very hard to close."

Neither the Detroit Public Schools nor the city has had much to say about the sweeps that, besides Mumford, were also held this year at Murray-Wright, Pershing, and Redford high schools. But soon enough they'll have to answer to the court for introducing students to the face of fascism as they were lined up in droves to be frisked and searched by police.

The ACLU has a good case to argue that the random sweeps policy in Detroit schools is a flawed way to achieve a worthy intent: to protect students against violence.


[Suetaznote: I think this is excellent news that the ACLU has taken up the fight in this. If they win this lawsuit it will set a very important precendent for future lawsuits. The war on drugs should not be a war on children. Law enforcement with guns, searching and frisking children looks like they are teaching children what 'police state' means, to me. Is this how we want our future generations raised, to learn to live in fear?]

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Cassius

But that is how our government, and so many parents, treat children anyway. They deal with the symptoms and ignore trying to treat the underlying behavior. It seems like parents these days don't care if their kids talk back to them, refuse to eat anything but junk food all day, and won't go to bed until the last episode of Jerry Springer is off, as long as they don't burn the house down or turn them in to Child Protective Services.

I agree with you, of course. I think by far we should be educating our children about the DANGERS of drugs, the DANGERS of guns, rather than just checking to see if it's happening. But this behavior of the school is alarmingly similar to how I see so many parents treating their children these days, that I think our future generations are going to turn out f*cked up whether we want them to or not.

Hiz Highness

I have always been a fan of the ACLU, and I'm glad to see them getting involved here.

I believe that searching students without any probable cause is a dangerous precedent to set. Not only does it violate the student's privacy, but it trains them to become accustomed to random police searches.

I'd like to keep Americans unaccustomed to random police searches if possible. The last thing we need is a generation of American's that is used to being thrown against the wall and patted down by police. That type of behavior should never be considered normal in a free country.

-HH

Dennis

Each and every parent whose adolescent was subjected to this governmental induced humiliation should also file suits against the city, schools, and police department in municipal, district, and state courts.

Make these governmental entities pay dearly for their fanatical extremism.


Dennis

Niteshift

Perhaps it's a difference in education, but I'm trying to see how a "frisk" is "humiliating". By definition, a "frisk" is the most cursory, least intrusive type of search. So either the speaker is using the improper term or is over-stating the level of "humiliation". I'm not sure which.

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A burning desire for social justice is never a substitute for knowing what you're talking about. -Thomas Sowell

Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is muzzle flash.

 

Kannibal

So either the speaker is using the improper term or is over-stating the level of "humiliation". I'm not sure which.


Perhaps over-stating the level of humiliation to you.You probably frisk people all the time and why? As a LEO in the field i'm assuming you need to for officer safety reasons and such at times.
Here though,they are doing it in a school with no apparent probable cause other than they want to and can.
I personally see nothing productive in the concept whether it be humiliating or not,it's just not right.The level of humiliation, imo, is not the issue.
Some students felt humiliated and probably intimidated.I'm assuming many resented it and who can blame them.
I can imagine a scenario where i'm sitting in class and the loud speaker goes off advising everyone that a mass search will be conducted on all students.
Please line up in an orderly manner and wait your turn.
"Why are they doing this to us?" One might overhear in the line of students."I haven't done anything."
Is there anything in your pockets or your purse that you'd like to tell me about before I look for myself?

__________________
Keep the wall of reality and fantasy high enough not to fall over but low enough to see the other side.

Arise -SWS-

Like Kannibal said, you probably search people all the time and i believe that you and a lot of other officers have become desensitized to how intrusive, intimidating, and yes sometimes humiliating even a frisk is. Also consider that teens are at the age where modesty is at an all time high (as in they tend to be less comfortable with strangers, esp. those with authority viewing/touching their bodies). Probably at no other time in their lives will a search be as embarrassing and impactful.

I find it especially frustrating, even angering sometimes that they subject students in school to these searches. Put yourself in a student's shoes... You're taking KIDS, having them line up and with no way to resist or object to an unconstitutional search by threat of further punishment or possible arrest, being searched by COPS who are trained to establish dominance over others (intimidate). Anyone who says this is an appropiate measure for keeping our schools safe is out of their minds. This is not prevention, this is fear establishment and a basic denial of fundamental civil liberties.

Suetaz

There was no probable cause in this case. As far as I'm concerned, they had no more right to do this than to do the same thing at a shopping mall. They don't have the right to go to a shopping mall and and do random pat-downs when there aren't any known or suspected criminal activity, so why should they be able to do it at a school? They are treating children like they don't have any rights, like as long as they are in school, children are at the mercy of whatever treatment they decide to give them. I've never been patted-down or frisked in my life and I certainly wouldn't want to go to school just to learn what that experience would be like. If I were in school and had a team of law enforcement come into my school, it would teach me to be afraid of police. A friendly liaison officer is one thing, but a team of police randomly searching students illegally, is another.

VicFerrari

Intrusive and humilating or not, I can't see how this kind of random school pat-down (frisk, whatever) is an efficient use of resources. I'd be extremely upset if my son or daughter came home from school:

Me: "So, what did you learn at school today?"
Kid: "Well, for the entire 1st period, we stood in line as the police patted us down at random, looking for contraband."
Me: "What?"
Later that day...
Telemarketer to me: "We'd like you to donate to the police fund..."
Me: "What?"

Unfortunately, a lot of people are used to this type of intrusion as they deal with it frequently: e.g. enter warehouse workers who are subject to searches as they leave work (by the company security).
I can't imagine that anyone would expect to submit to a police line-up search while standing in a public place, though.
I do agree with some of the other gestapo-ish school administration methods to limit contraband and crime: e.g. searching lockers (but why would you need police for this?), requiring dress-codes (to an extent), etc.

Niteshift

Perhaps over-stating the level of humiliation to you.You probably frisk people all the time and why?

Like Kannibal said, you probably search people all the time and i believe that you and a lot of other officers have become desensitized to how intrusive, intimidating, and yes sometimes humiliating even a frisk is.

Folks, I wasn't born in a uniform. I was a civilian for more years than I've been a cop. Guess what? I've been searched before.

Add to that the fact that I've attended 2 seperate police academys and, during the training, probably been subjected to more searches than you'll ever accumulate.......then add that I teach too and get even more of them.

Now you might try to discount the ones in an academy setting (although if being touched is the issue, you can't), but you can't discount the ones before I got involved in LE.

Edit: Since nobody wants to pay attention to the fact that I was addressing a comment about VIEWING, I'll just delete the comment and stop responding to anyone about it. If they are hell-bent on misinterpreting what I said, so be it.

I have no intention of arguing for or against the searches. I believe the speaker used the term "frisk" improperly to mean something that it's not. I stand by that and that's all I intended to point out.