For 5 of the following 10 case scenarios indicate which party is most likely to prevail. Please elaborate thoroughly on your response of the 5 chosen case scenarios.
1) ___ Mark, a high school freshman, had his cell phone out of his book bag in Mr. Wrights English class, in violation of school policy. Consistent with school policy, Mr. Wright seized Marks phone. Mark was told he could pick up the phone after school. In checking Marks cell phone contents, however, Mr. Wright was quite surprised to find evidence of cheating and other violations of school rules because Mark has otherwise been a model student. Based on the evidence found on his phone, Mark was suspended from school and subjected to academic sanctions for cheating. Mark (P) sues school officials (D) claiming an unlawful search.
2) ___ Students in Ms. Jacksons 8th grade math class eat lunch during the 4-B lunch period. They have part of their math class in the 4-A period and return to math class after lunch for the 4-C period. Students commonly leave their book bags in Ms. Jacksons locked room while they go to lunch. Returning to class early, Ms. Jackson noticed Hollys book bag was slightly opened. Glancing down, she saw what she believed was a small bong used for smoking marijuana. Ms. Jackson reached into the bag and seized the bong, also finding a bag of marijuana only visible when the bong was removed. Holly is charged with drug possession by a minor on public school property. Holly (P) attempts to have the evidence against her suppressed, claiming that the evidence was the fruit of an unlawful search by Ms. Jackson (D).
3) ___ Monday morning, after a long weekend, Officer Fife, the School Resource Officer, had a hunch that Mr. Pyle, the Choir Director, was up to something. While Pyle was at lunch Fife searched Pyles office and briefcase. In the briefcase Fife found and seized several small bottles of liquor and a bottle of narcotics. Fife stated that he was very careful, however, to stop the search as soon as he found evidence of wrongdoing, so as not to conduct an excessively intrusive search. When confronted by Fife and Principal Taylor about the alcohol and drugs found in his briefcase, Pyle explained that these were free samples given to him in a factory tour he attended over the weekend, and pain pills prescribed by his doctor for a back injury, both of which he had forgotten to remove from his briefcase after his weekend trip. Fife filed a police report and Taylor initiated dismissal proceedings based on Pyles possession of alcohol and drugs on school property. Pyle (P) seeks to have the seized evidence suppressed as the product of an unlawful search, and Pyle claims monetary damages for Fourth Amendment violations by Fife and the school district (D).
4) ___ There has been a series of thefts in Mrs. Bernankes 7th grade class. This morning another student reported that $10 had been stolen from her purse. Mrs. Bernanke decided to get to the bottom of these thefts once and for all. To avoid singling anyone out or discriminating, everyone was treated equally in the search. To protect students privacy Mrs. Bernanke took the girls into the girls restroom, and she asked Officer Krupke, a male School Resource Officer, to take the boys into the boys restroom to find the missing money. Students were first asked to turn out their pockets, and then to raise their shirts and lower their pants, but Bernanke and Krupke were careful that no undergarments were removed. Mrs. Bernanke found $10. So did Officer Krupke. Students parents (P) threaten to sue school officials (D) claiming an unlawful strip search.
5) ___ Illegal drugs were being sold and used by students in the school. School officials invited local police to bring a drug sniffing police dog to search for illegal drugs in school lockers. Arthur a police dog alerted to high school senior Doug Heffermans locker. School officials opened Dougs locker believing that illegal drugs were inside. Arthur quickly seized a box of donuts from the locker and devoured the donuts. No drugs were found. The Hefferman Family (P) sues school officials and local police (D) claiming an unlawful search.
6) ___ Weapons have been found at recent football games. In response, school officials placed a door-frame style metal detector at the stadium entrance. All persons are notified to remove metal objects prior to entering. Otherwise, there is no further intrusion on the individual, unless the detector alerts. After an alert the individual is asked to pass through the door-frame detector again to confirm the alert, at which point a hand-held detector is used to pin-point the metal object. A school official trained in search procedures then asks questions concerning any possible concealed metal to determine whether a more thorough search is warranted. After going through this process a student is found in possession of illegal drugs. But the metal object causing the initial alert turned out to be a small blunt-ended metal file used in metal working class, not deemed a weapon under state law or school policy. When questioned after the initial alert and hand-held scan, the student was so nervous about possessing illegal drugs he had forgotten the file was in his inner coat pocket. The student (P) sues school officials (D) seeking to have the evidence of drugs suppressed asserting that metal detector/administrative searches must be limited to dangerous weapons, and the drugs would not have been found except for this defective search.
7) ___ Principal Nelson was new to the school. To learn more about his teachers he searched their names on Internet search engines, taking a special interest in Mrs. Brown, and digging deep into anything he could find about her online. Through comments and links Mrs. Brown posted on social media websites, Principal Nelson discovered that Mrs. Brown had a prior felony conviction from when she was in college. When asked on her employment application if she had any prior convictions she had checked no. Principal Nelson admitted that he would not have discovered the conviction without searching Mrs. Browns personal online posts. But he nonetheless charged Mrs. Brown with falsifying her application and he is seeking employment sanctions or termination of Mrs. Brown. Mrs. Brown (P) sues Principal Nelson (D) for an unlawful search and seeks to have the evidence against her suppressed.
8) ___ Principal Martinet summoned public school Kindergarten teacher Ms. Young to her office to inform her that she would receive a formal letter of reprimand for falsifying a recent 2-day sick-leave claim. In response, Ms. Young insisted that she had been home sick with stomach flu those days. Martinet handed Young printed copies of two messages Young had sent from her school e-mail address. The first, addressed to her friend, said: Yes I can join you at Daytona Beach. I will just call in sick those days. And the second message told her mother she was going to Florida on those dates, and discussed other private family matters. Principal Martinet told Ms. Young she would also receive a second letter of reprimand for unprofessional conduct and lying about falsifying her sick leave claim when confronted. Young is enraged that Martinet has been spying on her and reading her personal messages between friends and family. Young (P) threatens to sue Martinet (D) over the illegal search of her personal messages.
9) ___ Daniel brought an electronic gaming device to class in violation of school rules. Consistent with school policy his 9th grade math teacher seized the device, but accidentally left it sitting on her desk after school. The seized item was stolen. Daniels parents demanded reimbursement for the $500 item. The school principal reminded them that Daniel was in violation of school policy by bringing the prohibited item to school. The principal suggested that they file a police report, but told them the school would not reimburse them for the stolen item. The parents (P) sue the school (D) for reimbursement for the stolen item.
10) ___ Several items are missing from the schools supply storage area. The custodians shared work office is housed in the supply storage area. Working with local police, school officials have security cameras covertly installed in the supply storage/custodial work office area. No one is recorded stealing supplies from the school. But security cameras recorded a group of custodians engaged in illegal drug use in the supply storage and work office areas. School officials fired the identified custodians and police arrested them for possession and use of illegal drugs on public school property. The charged custodians (P) want the security camera evidence suppressed, claiming an unlawful intrusion on privacy by school officials and police (D).
Chapter 7: Search and Seizure (Alex & Alex, 2022)
Teachers and principals have frequently found it necessary to search students and remove from their possession items , which may be harmful to them or to others. You authors stated that a majority of the student search and seizure cases are initiated during criminal proceedings by students who are seeking suppression of evidence obtained at school that is being used against them by the prosecution.
In a three page essay, you are to address Search and Seizure and use at least 10 of the 20 issues below discussed in this chapter in your essay. Make sure you address the fourth Amendment.
1. Right of Privacy
2. Reasonable Suspicion
3. Inception of Search
4. Intrusiveness of Search
5. Suspicioness Searches and Special Needs
6. Validity of Searches Under State Constitutions
7. Exclusionary Rule
8. Liability For Illegal Search
9. Police Involvement/School Resource Officers
10. Consent
11. Dragnet Searches
12. Canine Searches
13. Strip Searches
14. Search of Lockers
15. Cell Phone Searches
16. Surveillance Cameras
17. Automobile Searches
18. Field Trip Searches
19. Metal Detector Searches
20. Miranda Warning
Chapter 6: Due Process Rights of Students (J. Dayton, 2019)
Name:
Class:
For 5 of the following 10 case scenarios indicate which party is most likely to prevail. Please elaborate thoroughly on your response of the 5 chosen case scenarios.
1) ___ Because of a budget shortfall, the General Assembly passed a new school finance act that provides all children throughout the state with equal dollars-per-child to equally fund each students education. In signing the act into law, the Governor agreed with members of the House and Senate Education Committees that the fairest way to address the budget shortfall was for all students to share equally in the education funding that was available. Parents of children with disabilities, however, strongly objected to the new funding law, arguing that an adequate education for many children with disabilities cannot be provided with equal funding per-child. State officials responded that the Equal Protection Clause requires equal treatment of all persons under the law, and the new state funding formula categorically treats all children equally under the law. Parents of children with disabilities (P) sue the State (D).
2) ___ The Davis County School District is a formerly segregated school system that was released from federal judicial supervision years ago. It is obvious to all, however, that Davis County Schools are once again becoming increasingly segregated based on race. Schools in the highly affluent, suburban northern end of the County are increasingly White, as are the high-cost neighborhoods around them. Similarly, the economically distressed, urban southern end of the County is increasingly populated by poorer minority race families, making the Countys neighborhoods and schools increasingly segregated economically and racially. Attorneys representing minority students and parents (P) sue school officials (D) in federal court demanding a legal remedy for this increasing racial segregation in the Countys schools.
3) ___ Understanding the importance of international diversity in an increasingly global economy, school officials in Metro City Public Schools have recruited a highly diverse and international faculty. All international faculty members are legally present in the U.S., and authorized to work under U.S. law. But most of the international teachers do not hold U.S. citizenship. Metro City students are offered an outstanding selection of foreign language classes taught by native speakers, and international business classes that provide an excellent preparation for future competition in the global economy. The General Assembly, however, passed a new statute requiring that all public school teachers in the State must be U.S. citizens. Metro City Schools are forced to dismiss all non-citizen teachers. The dismissed teachers (P) sue the State (D) claiming a violation of the Equal Protection Clause.
4) ___ Article II, Section 1, of the U.S. Constitution requires that the President, as the head of the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government, must be a natural born citizen to be eligible to serve as President. No foreign born person is eligible to serve as the head of the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government. Relying on the authority of the U.S. Constitution, the State General Assembly passed legislation, signed into law, requiring that all public school superintendents, as the chief executive officers of public schools, must also be natural born citizens to be eligible to serve as superintendents. Dr. Wen was born in China, but he became a U.S. citizen 5 years prior to being hired as a new public school superintendent. Because of the new law, however, Dr. Wen was dismissed as legally ineligible to serve as a public school superintendent. Dr. Wen (P) sues the State (D) claiming a violation of the Equal Protection Clause.
5) ___ The Westside Citadel, a local male only privately funded military school, operates a highly successful educational program. Citadel students excel in academic performance and leadership skills. In contrast, in the local public school system, Wright County Schools, male students perform significantly below the academic levels of female students, and disciplinary referrals and drop-out rates for males are disproportionately high. Seeking to emulate the great success of the Citadel, the Wright County Public School Board created a similar program for male students in Wright County Schools. An otherwise qualified female student was rejected for admission to the male only program. The female student (P) sued school officials (D).
6) ___ A female student, Jenny, played football at Alpha Public High school her freshman and sophomore years, serving as a very successful kicker. Her parents moved to the Beta Public High School attendance zone. Jenny wanted to play on the Beta football team too, but she was told that she was ineligible as a female. Jenny and her parents (P) sue school officials (D) claiming unlawful gender discrimination.
7) ___ Upon returning from summer break, Melvin Tharp, the principal of Lone Star Public High School, has just discovered that five senior girls on the varsity cheerleading squad are pregnant. Teen pregnancy is a serious problem in the community. Principal Tharp and other school officials have been working with parents and concerned community members, educating students to reduce teen pregnancy rates. Cheerleaders are role models among students, and Principal Tharp is gravely concerned about the message that fielding five pregnant cheerleaders in front of the entire school and local community would send to the other students about teen pregnancy. Principal Tharp asks the pregnant girls to please resign from cheerleading. They refuse. Principal Tharp suspends the pregnant girls from cheerleading. The pregnant cheerleaders (P) sue Principal Tharp and the school district (D).
8) ___ Maria is an exceptionally mature looking 6thgrade girl. Because of this, boys in her class began making inappropriate and offensive comments to her about her breasts. Maria reported this to her teacher who reported it to the Principal. The Principal talked with the boys involved and instructed them to stop these inappropriate and offensive comments. Shortly thereafter, the Principal learned that sexual comments about Maria had been written on a bathroom stall in the boys bathroom. The Principal had the custodian paint over the offensive graffiti. Maria then found an anonymous note in her locker containing sexual comments and an offensive caricature of Maria. She told the Principal, and the Principal initiated an investigation to find and punish the perpetrator. But Marias parents have had quite enough of this abusive treatment of their daughter. The parents (P) sue school officials (D) for allowing this ongoing sexual harassment.
9) ___ An educational advocacy group calling itself Advocates for Learning and Fairness (ALF) compiled irrefutable evidence of large funding disparities nationally between poorer rural and urban schools, and the much wealthier schools in prosperous suburban areas. By virtually every measure wealthier suburban schools were given superior funding and could therefore provide superior educational opportunities for students, disadvantaging children in poorer schools. ALF further relied on what the U.S. Supreme Court said in Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954): Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments . . . it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms. Seeking a nation-wide remedy for these unfair funding disparities, ALF (P) sued the federal and state governments (D) in federal court for allowing an unequal school funding system that denies poorer students their fundamental right to equal educational opportunities under the U.S. Constitution.
10) ___ Because of rapidly rising fuel prices, the school board for the Big Valley Public School District voted to charge a rider fee for bus transportation. The monthly fee covers approximately 50% of the actual costs of transportation. Students farther out in the Valley are assessed higher fees. An advocacy group calling itself Equality in Transportation (ET) organized to oppose the fees. Similarly, a group calling itself Home Owners and Merchants for Education (HOME) believed that the fees were unfair and bad for the community, and that money for budget shortfalls should come from reducing administrative costs and not charging children to ride the bus to school. ET phones HOME, and ET and HOME (P) agree to sue the Big Valley School District (D) in federal court. They allege the fees violate the Equal Protection Clause because of both unequal fees and interference with students equal access to educational opportunity. Their complaint quotes Justice Marshalls opinion that a child must reach the schoolhouse door as a prerequisite to receiving the educational opportunity offered therein and such a fee discriminates because it necessarily [falls] more heavily upon the poor than upon wealthier members of the community.
Chapter 3: Due Process Rights of Students (Alex & Alex, 2022)
In a three and 1/2 page essay you are to address Due Process and use at least 15 of the twenty-Nine issues below discussed in this chapter in your essay.
1. Due Process Clause, Fourteenth Amendment
2. Fifth Amendment
3. Substantive Due Process
4. Conscience Shocking
5. Property
6. Liberty
7. What Process is Due
8. The Penalty Imposed
9. Immediate Temporary Suspension
10. Alternative Program Placements
11. Zero Tolerance
12. Procedural Due Process
13. Impartiality
14. Fairness
15. Bias
16. Elements of Procedural Due Process
17. Notice
18. Miranda Warning
19. Opportunity to be Heard
20. Access to Evidence
21. Cross-Examination & Witness
22. Hearsay
23. Legal Counsel
24. Appropriate Tribunal
25. Self-Incrimination
26. Double Jeopardy
27. In-School Suspension
28. Impact of Procedural Due Process
29. Guideline: Due Process
Chapter 13: Student Records, Defamation, and Privacy (Alex & Alex, 2022)
Instruction:
According to Alexander & Alexander (2018), educators are constantly dealing with sensitive matters involving students private and personal affairs. As a result, schools regularly collect and process information that can affect students life and prosperity. This include personal information that could attach a stigma to a students image in the community and/or may detract from his/or her success in both future education and employment. The should protect the student in three ways:
1. School districts are required to handle and process student records in a careful and prescribed manner by federal statute.
2. Students are protected through judicial precedents, which form the law of defamation.
3. Student has a right of privacy at common law against invasion of privacy.
Below you are required to thoroughly address at least four Sub-headings in the first two sections below(e.g., see textbook for more information on sub-headings) and thoroughly discuss Right of Privacy as it relate to the Sub-headings.
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
Six Sub-headings
Defamation
Ten Sub-heading
Right of Privacy