Author Question: Why are searches of high school students reasonable without warrants or probable cause? What will ... (Read 38 times)

jerry coleman · **on:** Aug 13, 2018

Why are searches of high school students reasonable without warrants or probable cause?

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Why don't searches of probationers and parolees require warrants or probable cause to be reasonable?

What will be an ideal response?

mirabriestensky · **Reply #1 on:** Aug 13, 2018

Answer to Question 1

Searches of high school students are reasonable without warrants or probable cause because SCOTUS has held that, in the context of a school setting, the Fourth Amendment must strike a balance between students' reasonable expectation of privacy and a school's legitimate need to maintain a healthy learning environment. Requiring school officials to have probable cause before searching students, and to additionally get warrants, would be too excessive given the need for quick disciplinary action by school officials in the high school setting. Therefore, reasonable suspicion alone is enough to conduct the search, and a warrant is not required.

Answer to Question 2

There are multiple explanations for the reasons that searches of probationers and parolees don't require warrants or probable cause to be reasonable. These explanations are:

1 . Some courts say that because probationers and parolees are still in custody and conditional release is a privilege, not a right, one of the conditions of this privilege that they must accept is to be searched at the discretion of the State.

2 . Some courts say these searches without warrants or probable cause are consent searches; probationers and parolees agree to these searches in their signed contract of release..

3 . Some courts adopt a balancing approach to searches of probationers and parolees. Probation and parole are risks taken to help rehabilitate convicted offenders. Laws to protect society from further crime that reduce Fourth Amendment protections for probationers and parolees are reasonable.