Student Searches

Why all the fuss about school searches? I’m an art teacher at Franklin High School. A group of administrators does this regularly in my school. Students are chosen randomly, say by their number on the class roster, and taken outside the classroom, with all their belongings, to be searched. They are treated courteously, and I’ve never had one complain, except when graffiti tools--markers or spray cans--have been confiscated.

Nor is it any more disruptive to the class than a summons from the counselors or any number of interruptions that happen each period. The rest of the class continues normally, and I don’t know of any weapons seized. Perhaps we should think of this as preventive medicine.

Marianne Gregory

Los Angeles