Welcome back to a new post on gang issues in education. Sorry it has been a considerable amount of time since my last post. I offer my apologies to those of you who have inquired as to why, all I can say is I have been enjoying my summer break. While at the same time doing some much needed research on gang trends across this great country.
What I want to discuss in this writing is a decision handed down by the U. S. Supreme Court in which they define responsible search of a student in a school setting. Apparently a student in a school in Arizona had brought some pills to school or was holding such and got caught by school personnel. She was taken into the office and administered a strip search by the school administration. Although I feel it is necessary to find any contraband brought onto school grounds there are other way of dealing with the situation without using such drastic measures.
First, and foremost, I understand what can happen if contraband is allowed to roam our school hallways. But at what lengths should searches be initiated to stop such contraband? In the girls case she was searched all the way down to her undergarments, before the drugs, in this case pills, were found. Although they were over the counter pills they were drugs non-the-less.
First I can see where a school is in need of finding contraband on its students because of what can happen if it is not confiscated. Having dealt with many gang members in a school setting has given me the perspective as to what lengths they will go to to bring any contraband into a school (i.e drugs/weapons). So I understand why a school would go to such lengths to stop this issue as much as possible.
But I believe it would be better to get the police involved and let them administer any searches as they are trained in such practices. In this case it would have eliminated the need for the school to be put into such a situation and opened themselves up for a lawsuit. I’m not advocating for letting contraband run amok in our school hallways but letting the professionals (police, resource officers), deal with these situations legally. That way if charges are pressed or contraband is found a report can be administered on the spot.
What this does is it allows schools to do what they are supposed to do, which is to teach students, while getting school districts out of the predicament the school district in Arizona put itself into. This is why I feel it is imperative that all schools have a resource officer on hand so issues like this can be dealt with immediately.
Although I can write pages and pages addressing this issue why not just by a copy of my book where I detail these situations in depth. You can purchase one by sending $19.95 plus $4.00 s&h, to Gilbert Cabrera, P.O. Box 13591, Las Cruces, New Mexico, 88013.
Thanks and come again for another post on gang issues in education. If you need to contact me you may do so at: cabgil@aol.com.
Gilbert