From the "Still Not Obvious Enough" Department

[jackofallgeeks]

What. The. Fuck.

A bill approved by the U.S. House yesterday would require school districts around the country to establish policies making it easier for teachers and school officials to conduct wide scale searches of students. These searches could take the form of pat-downs, bag searches, or strip searches depending on how administrators interpret the law.

The Student Teacher Safety Act of 2006 (HR 5295) would require any school receiving federal funding--essentially every public school--to adopt policies allowing teachers and school officials to conduct random, warrantless searches of every student, at any time, on the flimsiest of pretexts. Saying they suspect that one student might have drugs could give officials the authority to search every student in the building.

I can not express how much this enrages me. And you know what's worse? They'd probably say some shit like "it's to protect the kids!" Protect the kids from what? Certainly not lecherous or bullying school staff. Certainly not from an invasion of privacy, or an attack on their human dignity. Certainly not from constant fear. "If you've done nothing wrong then you've nothing to fear" is always a load of crap, and especially when you're talking about arbitrarily-enforced searches for arbitrary or non-existant reasons. There're a lot of articles out there that compare public schools to prison, and this is getting disturbingly close.

There are no words.

And you know? People wonder why I'm so against schooling.
(Vector: amereternal)

Comments

[tzohekiti.livejournal.com]

I can just smell the sexual harrasment law suites.

[nif.livejournal.com]

If you are interested, the precedent case for this is New Jersey v. TLO (1985) Supreme Court ruling. I think it's sick. I would never search a student in my classroom because even though they may be little shits, I still respect them as human beings with rights. Have you heard about schools randomly weighing kids? As if weight isn't already a major neurosis for high schoolers.. now their teachers and classmates are privy to the exact numbers on a scale. It made me furious. It's shit like this thats going to make me lose my job as a teacher because one day I'm going to tell the administration (in front of my kids and God and everybody) to go fuck themselves with a rusty, pointy object.

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard about that, but I had heard about an event (I don't think it was taken to court so I won't call it a case) where teachers (male and otherwise) we having girls lift their skirts before being allowed into a highschool (or was it junior high?) dance. Why, you might ask? Because they had reason to believe that some girls weren't wearing underwear for fear of having panty-lines. So to avoid such a scandalous possibility, they violated and humiliated every girl in the school. You can not even image how enraged that makes me. At the time those responsible we censured (I think even the principal was in on it, and it was the School Board who took issue with the practice after parents complained on their daughters' behalf), but according to this current bill, it seems that sort of thing would be alright. (I couldn't find the article to cite it.)

They are people, they do have rights, and adolescence is traumatizing enough as it is. These kids aren't inmates, they aren't criminals and they haven't done anything wrong. They're in school presumably to get an education, and shit like this is disgusting! What are we protecting them from? Drugs and shootings and whatever else is slinking around those scummy schools. Well, don't punish the kids for sins they haven't committed yet. Figure out *why* there's drugs and violence and shit and stop that. I'd rather my kids were treated with respect and dignity and risked being shot than be subjected to this sort of crap.

As per your job as a teacher, have I ever told you about my idea that we should move more-toward a private-tutor type system? It's more complex than that and allows for government subsidies so 'disadvantaged' kids can still learn, but... I really think the school system we have now is long past it's usefulness (keeping kids off the street) and needs to end.

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

*Googles case*
*Reads case*
*Rages*

You know why it went like that? Drugs were involved. Protect the kids from drugs, at all costs! Even if it means violating their rights or demeaning them as people. I think TLO was wrong in her behavior, but the way it was settled was even worse for the precedent it set. School staff are not agents of the parents. they are not chosen by the parents in any way. They are state employees 100%, regardless of what you might say, and as such ought to respect our rights as citizens. If a cop can't convict you on improperly obtained evidence -- if murderers and rapists and hard-core criminals can get off on such technicalities -- our children deserve at least that much!

*continues raging*