Should school authorities be able to search student's lockers/backpacks or is that considered invading their privacy?

yes they should be able to

In the USA they do have the legal right to.

Considering the school is quasie responsible for the saftey of other students and faculty and by enrollment which is and option students forfit certain "rights" to privacy in the contractual agreement you sign on enrollment.

And since most schools are private property and have their own "security" force it is not a smart move to put yourself under their authority in a way that could have very profound results on your personal freedom. future education, and saftey.

There are some Federal guidelines that oversee those powers but enforcement is iffy.

If you are concerned about what is in lockers or the security of your locker I would recommend not useing one. It is a good way to loose your personal possessions and have no recourse to retrieve your proeperty.

It's no different than when you get searched at the airport or other public places. Again, if you have nothing to hide, why does it matter? Also, lockers do not belong to the students, they are property of the school.

It might not be so much a matter of having something to hide as a sense of privacy or personal space. A locker offers little of either.

locker , absolutely

backpack,,not really,,,,without serious just cause,,,

That is a question that you should ask attorneys.

If for some reason checking a backpack saved a childs life, sure why not.

I bet the parents of children who have been shot or hurt in school would be all for it

I don't think it's possible to show that a search of a backpack saved a child's life.

Say you search a student's backpack and find a revolver loaded with ammuntion. You take it away. Did this save the life of a child?

We don't know. There is no way we can know. Even if the kid with the gun in the backpack says he or she was going to use it on a kid, or on any kid, or on a specific kid. It cannot be shown to be true. It never happened; it may not have happened even if the backpack was not searched. There are reasons for it to believe that. The gun-kid could have got cold feet; or he could have been stopped as he pulled the gun; or whatever.

I think it would be better to word your opinion this way:

"If not searching a backpack eventuated in a student being killed or murdered, then yes, a search at will of the school official is warranted."

This can be shown to be a fact. If Freddy walks into school, and during Geography, from which he is exempt due to medical reasons, he goes to his backpack, pulls the gun, and goes back to class and kills a kid who wears "Crips" colours, then yes, it is clear that a search of Freddy's backpack would have saved a life, because not searching it now resulted in the loss of a kid's life.

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I get your meaning, Josie, but I am just trying to say that there are ways of expressing a proposition that is meant well, but is basically not very useful.

My question to the parent questioning this is, why does the school feel the need to search YOUR childs backpack and locker? That to me is the bigger concern. Where are you failing as a parent that such a step needs to be taken? Perhaps YOU should be searching your own childs backpack daily.

schools are of course not flawless

perhaps it is not as simple as a parental 'failure' that leads to such searches


certainly , that is ONE cause , but Im almost as certain that it is not the ONLY cause,,,,(not that you said it was)

WUX, if you ever met me I would probably send you mad. You would spend your entire day needing to correct my speech.

Simply because I have no idea what you are talking about. I still don't see any difference in what you said it just had more words and seemed intelligent, it still ends up the same.

proposition come on Wux you are talking to an Aussie bush girl, the only time I have heard that word is in a movie and then it was someone asking for sex.

It was just an in "general" question. I have no need to search my married, 21 year old, honor student's backpackpack. I've never had a reason to, as she has NEVER given me ANY problems growing up. Even then, I still searched it (without her knowing) just for my own peace of mind and because I watch the news and and see how corrupt some of the children have become.

Secondly, YOU ASSUMED the school was wanting to search my child's backpack/locker, and that I was a parent failing somewhere in my responsibilities.

Yes.

All things considered how things are today, it is better to air on the side of caution and safety.

I loathe the fact we are more driven towards it, but with the increase in violence, bullying and other issues I feel it is more of a necessary evil.

when I was in school in the70's they searched my stuff all the time. Especially when I was smelling particularly roachy

Bless you heart, Little Aussie Lassie!! Coz I had a really bad day. Vile. Vitriolic.

Your taking my criticism in stride and not getting mad at me made the sun come up for me, for the first time today, although it's twenty past midnight here.

I think I may have meant the same thing, basically. The proposition thing. Who knows? It could have been sub-limi-nal, or else Freudian.

I know you are married now, and all is well. But I look at you, and I say to myself, this girl has plenty of sex. She brought enough for everybody in the class.

In my schooling days in poverty-stricken post-war Hungary, there was no need to search. Everyone came to class with a completely empty backpack, and was told at home to not dare come home until there is at least a half-eaten sandwitch or an apple in it.

There was a family of seventeen kids in my neighbourhood. They were the quintessential bullies. This is not a joke:

IN GRADE FOUR I SHARED A BENCH WITH THE FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD BOY FROM THAT FAMILY.

I swear to god and on my mother's grave this is true.

My brother-in-law told me that this guy's older brother did famous tricks. He broke into the local grocery store, and got drunk. The police came and had to wash him off the floor, he was spread out there in the middle of his vomit, in a drunken stupor.

Toward the younger end of the many children in their family (I still don't dare to write his name), the younger brother would come out of their house, everyone froze in their play, not say a word, not look, not move. He would survey us with disdain then leave.

It was sheer terror.

Now, if they lived now in the States and they were the same age as then, then I would applaud the authorities if they searched these boys' bags. All the parents and teachgers, too. The police force would send a plaque to the search team. The parents, though not happy about it, would be reasonable enough to see that this was very much in need. Would not complaint, they wouldn't.

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What I am saying is that middle class kids don't get searched; kids get searched who have gun problems at home; and if the kid has a racial color over his body, he has twomillion seven hundred thousand more chances to get searched, than a white kid. Yet, if you follow the news, the kids who bring loaded guns to "show and tell and shoot" are more than always white, middle aged kids.

These are the kids who bring home worse grades than the black kids, and the parents chastize them to a degree, which is inhuman.

I used to go to single's dances, and a young mother, divorced, told us that her daughter was hiding under the carpet as soon as she got home. When interrogated, it turned out that the hapless little girl got a B+ on her site-singing course.

The woman put it differently, but all hell broke lose.

The kid was sent to bed with no dinner for seven days, but only had to serve four for good behaviour. The mother stormed into the school building, and confronted the teacher association, who had been pre-alerted and was wearing riot gear by now, how DARE they besmearch the academic record of her grade two daughter.

ETC ETC.

So this little blue-eyed, blonde girl, with blue bonnets in her hair and skipping rope in school and doing sweet things, is in my opinion the one whose backpack they should search for handgranades and thermonuclear explosive devices.

The kids with Crips members for parents, and from broken homes (literally, and after a session of domestic violence) and whose daddy was a bike gang leader and mommy was a member of Republican caucus; all these very likely criminal elements give no hoot how the kid does at school. So why would the kid wanna blow up the school? It is probably a haven for the kid, and it serves no source of bitterness. The disadvantaged, marginalized kid has no resentment against his school, because he has other things to worry about. The blue eyed girl whose mother is raising and fattening her to be slaughtered on the altar of upwardly social mobility, is the one to look out for.

It is her pink-encrusted Unicorn-adorned, lavender smelling bag the school should search every day.

Your probably right. My son was pulled up in school for carrying a knife, he was 8 and had taken a bowie knife to school to show his friends and teacher, All my 4 boys have collected knives and swords from a young age.
The school took the knife from him and gave it back to me. I wásn't upset that it had been taken, not that he would have used it on anyone, ut more because the other kids where not used to handling knives and could have hurt themselves.
Really it could be anyone, but I don't have a problem with anyone going through my childrens bags if they are concerned, as long as they let the munchkins know and be present, thats just showing them a little respect.

Yep the poor boy married me Lucky me..

Now his life is full of Chaos and madness. But he puts up with it with a smile.

The thing I love about mingle is that we can all say what we want. So nope i don't get upset, we all say what we say a little differently, and your posts always amuse me.