There's a lot of debate on this in the media and political circles as well as PTAs, no doubt. Since Justice Fortas, in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, Justice Fortas said that "it can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate. " Lest I be accused of misapplying Fortes' words, I'll say that the mindset might work for 4rth Amendment claims too. The schools will argue that they have a right to ensure the safety of the entire student body and they would be right but since you're talking about students being searched without reasonable suspicion, then I think "protecting the student body" isn't a good enough reason to search anyone without due cause. It's often said that school prepares our young for democracy (snort) but given that a lot of schools seem to function more like authoritarian dictatorships, I don't find that claim convincing. If they want to prepare the young for democracy as they say they do, then perhaps school should be more democratic.
