I’m up late, and that wonderful “Latest Headlines” button on the web browser’s toolbar was calling my name. And so I found this article from the BBC, which says that schools in the UK now have the same right to violate students rights as here in America. Yeah, not 1984-ish at all…
Schools in England have been given the legal right to search pupils who are suspected of carrying knives.
Suspected? What’s suspected mean? If you don’t use MySpace, your suspected, right? (Actually, I’ve heard BeBo is popular in England.) Seriously, I’ve always seen an issue, in that a student that doesn’t like another can go up to someone and say, “Hey, insert student name here got insert name of dangerous weapon, ” and run. Then, well you can imagine what happens next.
Head teachers will also be given guidance on how to use airport-style metal detectors to screen young people. The guidelines state that a pupil can be refused entry to a school if he or she refuses to be screened.
Wow. Unfortunately, they’ve been doing that in America for, oh, 6 years. And what I find is amazing, is that they catch most kids with knives gossiping to their friends, and what do the metal detectors, paid for with your tax dollars, catch? Oh, cell phones and iPods, maybe? Oh, and only denied entry. Good for them. If you refuse to have your Constitutional rights taken away in America by not going through with a screening, that’s probable cause to suspect you’re hiding something and the police officer on duty will arrest you before you can whip out your pocket Constitution.
Education Secretary Alan Johnson said knife-carrying in schools was rare, but it was illegal and a message it would not be tolerated must be sent out.
Surprisingly rare in America too, but that doesn’t stop the friggen’ searches.
For example, the guidelines suggest that randomly selected groups of pupils could be searched in order to send out a strong message of deterrence
I would guess the definition of “random” would be
“Hey, you see that group of outcasts? They might want to hurt somebody. Go search them.”
Yeah. Random.
The DfES also sets out limits for schools.
There is something we should have thought about. If only we had a document. A document that states our rights. One that limits what the Government and governmental institutions like public schools can do and search us for… oh wait….
Only members of staff authorised by the head teacher can undertake a search.
They have that here too. Doesn’t help when the principal (head teacher in UK) says “everybody join in!”
Suspicion has to be reasonable and not based on stereotypical images of certain groups of pupils.
Well, good start. Now if only people would pay attention to these rules.
Two members of staff should be present for a search and both must be the same sex as the pupil.
Same sex? Um, I’m not going to even ask why.
And students can only be required to remove outer clothing, such as coats or jackets.
That’s actually a good rule. Now, if only they follow it…
Note: I’m going to skip ahead a little bit…
“Where possible it should take place outside of public view, so that we are again respecting the individuals who clearly may have a perfectly innocent explanation for being suspected of carrying a weapon.”
Good. We need to learn that.
Overall, I’m just trying to say this: We need to stop this nonsense now. I’m writing this so us Americans can learn from our mistakes, and to hopefully keep the idiocracy from spreading. We’ve let it spread to the UK, but let’s keep it from Germany. SUSE is from there. We like SUSE.
News article analyzed is (C) 2007 BBC
