Government Schools And Government Prisons: Not All That Different
Compelling post at Lew Rockwell about the creep of the police state.
William Grigg writes:
Warrantless "drug sweeps" in government-run schools have become routine in recent years. So have "lock-down" drills in which SWAT teams conduct training exercises involving hostage or terrorism scenarios. In some lock-down drills,studentsinmates have been kept in the dark about the fact that the incident is a training exercise, rather than a genuine crisis.Vista Grande High School in Casa Grande, Arizona, held a lock-down drug sweep on October 31.
StudentsInmates were confined to their classrooms, then led in small groups to another room where they were forced to line up against a wall and be searched with the help of drug-sniffing dogs. This exercise introduced a new element: Among the four law enforcement agencies involved in the search was a group of prison guards employed by the Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest for-profit prison contractor.Notes Caroline Isaacs of the Tucson office of the American Friends Service Committee: "To invite for-profit prison guards to conduct law enforcement actions in a high school is perhaps the most direct expression of the `schools-to-prison pipeline' I've ever seen."
During my stint as a teacher, we had several lockdowns, none of which we knew were drills. The terror those kids felt, my own feeling of powerlessness, was awful. The last lockdown I went through, one of my students cowering near me, a special needs kid, said "Miss K, I dreamed last night I died. Am I going to die?" And I couldn't tell him "no." All I could do was tell him I'd do anything I could to protect him.
I also remember thinking that if they'd let me carry my own gun, I'd be standing guard over those children instead of cowering in the dark with them.
The Original Kit at November 28, 2012 7:32 PM
I'm not as well versed in SCOTUS rulings as some of the other commenters, but didn't they come to the conclusion that students don't give up their rights, specifically I believe it was first amendment rights, by being on school grounds.
I would assume the same is true of fourth amendment rights, i.e. to be secure in their persons against unreasonable search.
Lining kids up against a wall and searching them, via dogs, sans probably cause, for drugs seems like a violation to me.
Of course, if the fourth amendment no longer applies at airports, then why should it still be valid at schools.
Jazzhands at November 28, 2012 7:33 PM
I'm split on the lock-down drills.
I've been reading the about the Terror at Beslan. Basically Muslim terrorists came into a school, took everyone hostage and killed a lot of people.
The Afghani's (Muslims) did not attack Russia/USSR until after Russia had left Afghanistan. Then the gates of hell opened.
So the concept of evacuating students to a parking lot, or other open area, would leave them vulnerable to a large vehicle running down numerous students then detonating a large bomb in the crowd.
The warrentless searches is an easier answer: just advise the police that they are in violation of the Terry Stop rules and enforce from the school administration. That is the local population telling their school administrators where to go on this.
Jim P. at November 28, 2012 7:44 PM
That is pretty much the answer. What needs to happen is the parents and local population needs to stand up and say to the school board that a search of their children without a warrant or probable cause is not allowed, unless the parent consents.
Jim P. at November 28, 2012 7:49 PM
There are now multiple school districts that allow concealed carry by the teachers and staff.
Some of the change was from the attack on Breslan and the realization that our schools are totally vulnerable.
You may want to see if the rule is till in place.
Jim P. at November 28, 2012 8:01 PM
Police state? November 28, 2012 10:58 PM, near the bottom (presently).
Damn, I'm good at this.
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at November 28, 2012 11:05 PM
Prisons are for when schools fail. I mean people are sent to prison because they failed to learn how to live how the government wants them to...so obvious the school failed. prison = remedial school
The Former Banker at November 29, 2012 12:46 AM
This police state brought to you by our friendly U.S. government Drug Warriors.
mpetrie98 at November 29, 2012 1:42 AM
The day before I transferred Daughter #2 out of her public high school into a private one, I noticed an unusually high number of police cars at the school when I went to pick her up. "What's this all about?" I asked her. "Oh, just random locker searches," she said. Really? Oh yeah, they happen all the time. Which is why, she said, she never used hers. "They don't need to be knowing what I have in my locker or anywhere else." she told me. "I don't use drugs, I don't hang with kids who use them, and I don't want the dogs sniffing around my stuff."
She told me that's why she keeps everything with her in her backpack. I asked her how often these "searches" take place. She said at least 5, sometimes more times a month. So that's once a week, at the very least. In a public high school. In the name of keeping kids "safe" I guess. I got her out just in time, methinks. I didn't ask if they do "random drug searches" at the private school; I had no idea they were doing them with the frequency they are in the public schools.
Flynne at November 29, 2012 5:18 AM
Parents put up with this because they care more about the free babysitting service they get from public schools than they do about their children being treated like livestock.
Pirate Jo at November 29, 2012 8:59 AM
The mistake in Ms. Isaacs' outrage is the assumption that this is a law enforcement exercise. It's not.
It's an exercise in power projection. The administration has complete power over the students ... with the parents' permission.
The parents that put up with (nay, encourage) this tidbit of fascism value security for their precious snowflakes over freedom for them.
After all, freedom comes with responsibility and is filled with random events, not all of which are pleasant.
Keeping drugs out of the schools ensures the precious snowflakes won't be corrupted, right? They'll still be able to get into a "good" college, right?
The price paid in the abridgement of the snowflake's freedom and lessening of his/her ability to feel outrage at that abridgement is worth it, right?
Parents are no longer raising citizens. They're raising "honor students" - at least that's what all the bumper stickers would have one believe.
Conan the Grammarian at November 30, 2012 11:33 AM
Another excuse to grope underage schoolgirls!
jefe at November 30, 2012 12:33 PM
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