Abstract
The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures by government officials that intrude on a person's reasonable expectation of privacy. Searches conducted without a warrant issued upon probable cause are per se unreasonable unless one of the well-delineated exceptions is applicable. The purposes of this legal research study were to: (1) trace the judicial history of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution; (2) ascertain the current law applicable to searches and seizures conducted by public school officials by identifying legal concepts, doctrines, and principles; (3) determine if criminal liability is an adequate remedy for Fourth Amendment violations, and (4) develop a policy statement in order to inform school administrators of their legal rights and responsibilities. The study which is based principally on Case Law and Statutory Law provided the following conclusions, legal concepts, doctrines, and principles: (1) The Fourth Amendment requires that searches of students conducted by public school officials be based on reasonable suspicion and need not be supported by a warrant or probable cause. (2) School officials do not stand in loco parentis during the performance of their duties as teachers and administrators. (3) The reasonable suspicion doctrine gives the school official the right to establish reasonable rules and regulations for the benefit of students. (4) Criminal liability for infringement of Fourth Amendment is almost non-existent, and it certainly does not afford an adequate substitute for the exclusionary rule. (5) Search of student by school official is reasonable if there is reasonable grounds for suspecting that the search will turn up evidence of student's violation of either law or rules of school and if measures adopted are reasonably related to the objectives of search and not excessively intrusive in light of age and sex of student and nature of infraction.