You are the principal of a large, suburban high school and receive a call late one evening that one of your students has overdosed on a combination of heroin and over-the-counter cold medication and is in critical condition. The drug, known as “cheese,” has spread rapidly through your community, and you have heard rumors that a number of your students have been using it. News of the overdose travels quickly, and as you arrive at school the following morning you see a small group of students gathered outside, holding hands and praying. A teacher who also sees the group approaches and tells you that she thinks it would be appropriate for her to lead a school-wide prayer during a morning assembly. Later that morning, you receive a call from a local television station asking if you can verify the hospitalized student’s name and address, and provide a picture and copies of her attendance records and grades so they can do a feature on how the use of “cheese” affects academic performance and school attendance. At the end of the day, a small group of students comes into your office and tells you that they know of a student who sells “cheese” on campus during lunch and after school.
The first sentence of the scenario reads as follows:
You are the principal of a large, suburban high school and receive a call late one evening that one of your students has overdosed on a combination of heroin and over- the-counter cold medication and is in critical condition.
I found no issues with this statement because the caller was not identified. It could have been a parent or a friend of the student. Had the caller been identified, an offense may have been committed. However, not enough information was provided to detail an offense.
The first issue that stood out to me was in the following sentence:
The drug, known as “cheese,” has spread rapidly through your community, and you have heard rumors that a number of your students have been using it.
The final sentence in this scenario also falls under this topic.
At the end of the day, a small group of students comes into your office and tells you that they know of a student who sells “cheese” on campus during lunch and after school.
This statement leads me to believe that there is a school-wide problem with this drug and possibly others. I would attempt to avoid a witch-hunt scenario, but the problem really should be taken care of which can be done legally in a number of ways.
The first way of legally attacking this issue requires patience. This simply involves waiting for tips. Searching individual students and student property requires more than just a hunch. An anonymous tip is not quite enough, either. Administrators must have reasonable cause. The tip must come from a known informant and must include specific information. It also must be given straight from the informant to an administrator. If I or any of the other administrators received these tips, we would certainly take action given the situation. (Walsh, p. 374)
Lockers and desks are a good hiding place for the students to hide the drugs. As long as the policy is stated in the student code of conduct that the school may search this jointly held property, the lockers may be searched. However, it is generally looked down upon to complete these blanket searches. So, my administration would not take this type of action. We would only search a locker if sniffer dogs alerted on a particular locker. (Walsh, p. 384)
The first action I would likely take to battle the drug problem on my campus is to make use of sniffer dogs, assuming that they are available. Use of sniffer dogs to complete a general sweep of lockers and vehicles on school property is not considered a search. This is always permitted under any circumstances. The dog, however, must be considered reliable. If the dog is considered reliable and it alerts, the alert can be considered reasonable suspicion to conduct a search of the locker or vehicle. Use of sniffer dogs to search students at a distance has not yet been determined legal or illegal as of 2010. This would likely be okay since there is no targeting of any particular student and it does not involve any contact. Since it has not been determined, it is not something that I would encourage as an administrator. If my district has a police department, they would likely have a policy on this matter. Once an alert occurs, no district employees will conduct the search under my administration. It would be turned over to the local police department (unless the district police department has a policy on this matter). If the search is turned over to the local police department, the district cannot be held liable if nothing is found and a civil suit is filed. Also, school employees are usually not trained to conduct proper searches. It would be much safer to leave it in the hands of those who are trained to do so. (Walsh, p. 382)
It is also legal for some students to be drug tested at school. Students who are involved in extracurricular activities can legally be randomly drug tested throughout the school year. They can also all be drug tested at the beginning of the year. These tests can only be used for excluding them from those extracurricular activities. They may not be used for other school disciplinary procedures, shared with any faculty not involved in the extracurricular activity, or turned over to legal authorities. Waivers must be signed. This may be restricted in different districts. However, if I am an administrator in a district which allows this, I will certainly have it implemented. It is just good practice to use this. If an accident occurs due to drug use during these extracurricular activities, there may be liability issues for the district if the drug use is not known about. (Walsh, p. 382-383)
The third part of the scenario states:
News of the overdose travels quickly, and as you arrive at school the following morning you see a small group of students gathered outside, holding hands and praying. A teacher who also sees the group approaches and tells you that she thinks it would be appropriate for her to lead a school-wide prayer during a morning assembly.
While no state-mandated prayers can take place at school, student-led prayer is permitted if there are no attempts to make students listen to or participate in the prayer. This must be done individually and not as a school function. Voluntary prayer at school by students is completely legal according to the decision in Wallace v. Jaffree. (p. 273) Teachers are permitted to take part in the prayer in any role as long as it is not a school assembly. If the teacher wanted to take part in the private student prayer circle, she would be allowed to do so according to Doe v. Duncanville ISD (Duncanville II). The employee has a constitutional right to take part in prayer activities. (Walsh, p. 271)
The final legal issue involves disclosure of records.
Later that morning, you receive a call from a local television station asking if you can verify the hospitalized student’s name and address, and provide a picture and copies of her attendance records and grades so they can do a feature on how the use of “cheese” affects academic performance and school attendance.
In this particular instance, the administrator would not be allowed to provide the information. The school would need the parent to sign a disclosure statement for the release of the documents. As an administrator, even with the signature, I would not provide this information to the television station. I could, however, provide the records to the parents/guardians and make them aware of the request. I would rather not get involved. (The station could end up finding the identity of the student through other methods anyway.)
Records can be released if the student identity is removed or coded. The student must remain anonymous. But because the station is asking for a specific student's identity and records, this would be illegal. ( Walsh, p. 368)
Walsh, J., Kemerer, F. R., & Maniotis, L. (2010). The educator's guide to Texas school law (7th ed.). Austin: University of Texas Press.
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