T. L. O V. New Jersey Case

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Before taking a look at this case, think about the following questions. Do students have the same rights under the 4th amendment as adults?, What are students’ rights while being searched on school grounds?, and What guidelines do administrators and teachers need to follow as a result of New Jersey v. T.L.O? The case of New Jersey vs T.L.O involved two freshmen high schoolers who were caught using narcotics in the restroom by a teacher. The teacher took the students to the principal who then asked the students about the incident. The principal tried to make them confess to possessing marijuana but only one of the two girls came out as guilty and took the consequences. The other girl, T.L.O, however decided to plead herself as being innocent of any such crime. …show more content…

T.L.O is relying on court president which is similar to the case of Mapp vs Ohio, that if you don’t have a warrant and you go in and find evidence that that is excluded from trial so they shouldn’t be able to use the contents of T.L.O’s purse. This case is a restraint case because it’s not going to change the rules of the school, it’s going to allow for the search. The court argues that it is correct that students do have an expectation of privacy. No student should expect to have a full scale body search. They also say that there needs to be a balancing test with schools ability to have law and order to run classes to make sure legal activities and drugs aren’t in the school to get in the way of educational objectives. This case is freedom vs order argument. They say that the vice-principal had the constitutional right to search the bag, he had reasonable suspicion and that is the magic word that gives students expectation of privacy while balancing it with law and order of the school. The court goes on to say that he’s further not violating the constitution because once he saw the evidence, it was in plain view and theirs a plain view doctrine which is another exception to the fourth amendment which