Dear Editor, 

Lately, I have been noticing an increase in random school searches. I was even a part of one of these searches recently.  I believe that these searches are illegal, and here is why. I recently learned of a Supreme Court case called New Jersey V.S. T.L.O, in which a girl had been searched after being caught smoking in the bathroom.  The search resulted in the student, T.L.O being caught with cigarettes, as well as other contraband. T.L.O argued that this search went against her fourth amendment because she was searched without probable cause. The court eventually sided with the school, and it was decided that schools just need reasonable suspicion that someone has something they shouldn’t to search someone.  Instead of needing probable cause to search someone as it is in public. This move gave schools way too much power and allowed them to abuse it easily. Lately at AAHS they have been coming into classes and searching the whole class for phones, vapes and other contraband. However, in all of these cases nobody in the class was caught with any of these things, so where is the reasonable suspicion to justify the search.  I think that if the school wants to search somebody they must disclose the reason for the search.

Andrew Graupensperger