The Fourth Amendment Rights of Students

This chapter begins with an overview of the Fourth Amendment, including its requirements for searches and seizures undertaken by police officers in criminal contexts, and its more relaxed requirements for searches and seizures undertaken by school officials in the custodial and tutelary context of public schools. The permissibility of searches that would be invasive of privacy or otherwise unconstitutional in other contexts is examined, including random drug testing and the routine use of surveillance cameras, metal detectors, and sniffer dogs. The chapter examines why strip searches and the use of excessive force by school officials are generally impermissible. We conclude with an update on qualified immunity for school officials.