New+Jersey+v.+T.L.O.

Case: New Jersey v. T.L.O. (1985)

T.L.O. was caught smoking in a school lavatory. When she denied smoking, her vice principal searched her purse, and found not only cigarettes, but rolling paper. Since the rolling paper led the vice principal to suspect drug usage, he searched her purse more thoroughly and found a small amount of marijuana and other paraphernalia that implicated T.L.O. in marijuana dealing. Her parents wanted the search suppressed because the vice principal did not have a search warrant.

Ruling: The Supreme Court found for the school saying that students have reduced expectations of privacy in school.

Impact: Instead of "probable cause", a school needs to have a "reasonable suspicion" that laws are being violated in order to conduct a search. This gives the schools more latitude than the police have in dealing with students.

Reference:

Essex,N. L. __School Law and the Public Schools__. fourth edition. University of Memphis. 2008. p. 62-63.