TRI In The News
Students Not Protected by 4th Amendment?
From One News Now
Original article available here
The Rutherford Institute is asking an appeals court to reject the arguments of a Missouri high school in defense of its unconstitutional practice of lockdowns and mass searches.
The lawsuit began in 2010, when a Springfield city councilman and his wife learned that their children were subject to routine lockdowns that included German Shepherds searching students' backpacks, purses and other effects. The Rutherford Institute's John Whitehead says it has been a tough legal fight, as the courts have traditionally ruled that students do not have the same rights as adults and are, therefore, not protected by the Fourth Amendment.
"However, our argument is that even if you're a student in a school, you do have what we would call minimal protections of the Fourth Amendment," he offers, "which means that before the government searches your goods, looks through your lunchbox, your backpack, they should have some reasonable suspicion that you're doing something illegal."
He says the lockdown procedure and mass searches routinely conducted at Springfield Central High School send the wrong message to students.
"They're going to be taught they really have no Fourth Amendment rights," the attorney warns. "They grow up, they go out, and they become citizens; they're going to allow the policemen to pull them over or stop them on the street and search them, which, by the way, the Fourth Amendment protects against."
Regardless of who wins and loses this case, Whitehead asserts that appeals will undoubtedly be made all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
