Why The Drug Searches Should Be Allowed In Schools Essay

Words: 404
Pages: 2

The random and targeted searches conducted by many schools of student property and persons, while ruled to be legal and within the school’s jurisdiction, have faced criticism in regards to student privacy. While these searches often do reveal drugs or weapons, there is insufficient evidence to determine whether or not they actually decrease the incidents of drugs and violence in schools. While students should have a reasonable right to their own privacy, school officials conducting searches for illegal items on school property is well within the rights of the administration. The most common searches in schools are locker searches, where police dogs are often used to sniff out drugs in students’ lockers. These searches often do turn up several incidences of drugs, but they often don’t lead to either treatment or arrest of the affected students. Regular searches of students’ persons is also allowed, but rarely done in many schools without violence issues since the main purpose is to find weapons carried by students more than drugs. More debated is car searches, which are technically allowed but very rarely done since they are invasive (by requiring students to unlock their vehicles) and require significant time and personnel. Because car searches are quite uncommon, there has been little debate over whether or not they should be allowed, since students often claim that they should have more privacy in their own vehicles. On the other side, parking lots and vehicles are much more convenient places for the drug trade because they’re much harder to …show more content…
The school is responsible for the students while they’re on school property, and measures to make students safer, such as comprehensive weapon searches, are therefore justified. However, school administration must still use their own judgement in deciding what measures are appropriate and how far these intrusions should