Legal Basics

Chapters 7-9
Property and Privacy Confidentiality and Reporting Requirements Chronic Illness and Medical Emergencies

Test Your Knowledge Property and Privacy

Teachers have the right to take anything a student brings to school that is not used for academics. Schools have the right to search students lockers. School officials can search a students car with a reasonable cause.

Property and Privacy

You are the vice principal of a middle school. At 9:10 in the morning you notice that two of your students, both carrying purses, are wandering off campus to a place where students have been known to smoke marijuana. You and a security guard go to the area and smell marijuana. Do you have a reasonable cause for searching the girls purses?

 Make a mental list of why to search that will later be put on paper When students bring illegal items (drugs or guns) to school then school officials have an obligation to respond. If there is a reasonable suspicion that the search will produce illegal possessions then the search is allowed.

Strip Searches
Best to be left to law enforcement officials

Locker and Desk Searches

Allowed if there is a concern Regular searches and unannounced searches allowed

Dog Sniff Searches

Not a formal search but if this leads to a more formal search can be considered reasonable cause or unreasonable cause.

Automobile Searches
While on school property, can be searched under reasonable cause.

Privacy
Searches invade privacy and must only be made according to the reasonable cause standard.

Drug Testing
Blood and urine tests are too intrusive and violate students privacy rights. Drug Testing only allowed for athletes
Schools may carry out certain suspicionless searches, such as random drug tests of athletes, the court ruled, because such tests are mandatory only for those who choose to participate in those voluntary activities.

Student Records
Explicitly written comments about students behavior, attitudes, actions, hygiene, and private facts violate a students privacy rights. Examples:
Comments in student records such as this girl is a thief and a liar - do not trust her or a lost year student does little or no work Newsletter stating a student was adopted

Test Your Knowledge Now

Teachers have the right to take anything a student brings to school that is not used for academics. Schools have the right to search students lockers. School officials can search a students car with a reasonable cause.

Confidentiality and Reporting Requirements

Susan has a great deal of confidence in her math teacher, Mrs. Smith. She says to her one day, I need to talk to you, but first you must promise never to tell anyone. She then tells Mrs. Smith how her uncle, who is in jail, is making her father run an illegal operation from their home. Susan says she is afraid of all the weird people coming to the house. How should Mrs. Smith handle this information? Is she obligated by the students confidence in her to say nothing? Or is she obligated to tell the principal or police about the students fears? Is there potential for child abuse in this situation?

What should Mrs. Smith do?

Mrs. Smith needs to let Susan know that there is no guarantee this will be kept a secret. Mrs. Smith needs to report this because of suspicion of illegal activity and potential for child abuse.

 Confidential information must only be shared with appropriate people, do not gossip - could be considered defamation. Court will always support a report of suspected child abuse if it is made in good faith.

Chronic Illness and Medical Emergencies

A student with a history of asthma was having trouble breathing. The nurse, assistant principal, and counselor tried contacting the girls mother to see if she would pay for an ambulance to transport the girl to the hospital. After 34 minutes, the girls 14-year-old sister called 911 herself. The stricken girl died before help arrived. In subsequent legal action the judge ruled that the principal had shirked his duty to protect this child from harm and awarded damages to the parents in almost $1.5 million.

 In a medical emergency focus on what is best for the child not who will pay. Teachers and counselors should be aware of health concerns. Medicine may only be given to those with proper authorization forms from parents or doctors. Teachers need basic first aid training and school leaders need CPR training. Schools may exclude students who have communicable diseases when still considered contagious.