A Changing Society

[BizzyBee]

What is more important?
Compromising the unique rights of the induvidual for the safety of society?
OR
Compromising the safety of society for the rights of the induvidual?

[JuniperWoolf]

As in most cases, I believe that moderation is the key but the question in the poll has little do do with safety. It doesn't affect my safety at all if the kid in the desk behind me is baked.

[Alexander III]

As in most cases, I believe that moderation is the key but the question in the poll has little do do with safety. It doesn't affect my safety at all if the kid in the desk behind me is baked.

Yet if the kid behinde me is on coke, I would feel uneasy.

[Darcy88]

This recalls to mind a thing I heard on the news a while back. This kid was texting in class and would not stop so the teacher confiscated his phone and then began reading the texts. The kid was texting a friend of his who had just stolen a car. The teacher told the principal who then called the cops. The car thief friend was arrested, the other kid disciplined by the school.

The school is now being sued for invading the kid's privacy.

And I think schools should be allowed to search for drugs. Kids need to remember that they are kids. Besides, they have it pretty easy these days considering how back in my father's time students would routinely get the belt if they stepped out of line.

If I were still in high school I'd likely be singing a different tune on this topic. Boy was I lucky drug searches were not common!

[Alexander III]

As in most cases, I believe that moderation is the key but the question in the poll has little do do with safety. It doesn't affect my safety at all if the kid in the desk behind me is baked.

Besides what Idiot would keep weed in his locker or on him at school or university. It's rule number one, you dont walk about with **** on you, I say if someone is stupid enough to walk around with weed or keep it in his locker he deserves some form of punsishment, simply for his stupidity.

[LadyLuck]

Besides what Idiot would keep weed in his locker or on him at school or university. It's rule number one, you dont walk about with **** on you, I say if someone is stupid enough to walk around with weed or keep it in his locker he deserves some form of punsishment, simply for his stupidity.

That's kind of my philosophy. If you are doing nothing you shouldn't be, then there is nothing to worry over. If you are then be smart about it and don't put yourself in the position of being caught. School is not the place or time.

[cafolini]

I would go for sacrificing the safety of society for the rights of the individual. But there is a catch. Should that individual violate the law, the person should then be interrogated and judged according to evidence.
Searches should not be conducted at all without openly evident cause. And in the case of the student texting another during class time, the teacher should be allowed to confiscate the phone, but never to look into the text.

[OrphanPip]

I wouldn't think it acceptable for a police officer on the street to randomly search me, so I certainly don't think it acceptable for a school to engage in policing.

[Buh4Bee]

Random searches are WRONG! But if there is a specific reason to suspect as outlined by the "law" or school policy- a search should take place. A HS kid with drugs can be very, very bad, especially if it is being sold at the school to minors.

[JuniperWoolf]

But if there is a specific reason to suspect as outlined by the "law" or school policy- a search should take place.

Good call. Unless there's a legitimate reason to search the school, I don't agree with random drug searches. I don't agree with making pot illegal in the first place and besides, there are always going to be "stoners" in highschool. It's a waste of resources to crack down on kids smoking marijuana, and it's degrading to have your locker opened and watch cops going through it even if you know there's nothing in there that shouldn't be. They used to do that in my highschool (universities in Canada don't give a ****, there are kids all over the place sporting pot leaves on patches and pins). It was an invasion of my privacy and I resented it. However, if there's a school that's having a lot of trouble with kids doing crack or something then I'm okay with the law coming in and investigating in order to find the person who's selling to them.

[TurquoiseSunset]

The police used to bring sniffer dogs to my highschool and while we were sitting in class the dogs would walk around sniffing us and our bags. It never bothered me or anyone else.

I have never been searched for drugs, but I don't think it would have bothered me if it happened at school or work. Even on the street, if all the correct procedures were followed, etc. I wouldn't really mind.

I am not saying, however, that I think it's right or wrong, but just that I wouldn't mind.

[kasie]

Drug searches in schools come into a different category from street searches - schools have a Duty of Care for all their pupils, they stand in loco parentis with regard to their pupils, which means they act as reasonable parents would for the well-being of their children. I'm not sure what the age of majority is for other parts of the worls but in UK it is 18, which means that most of the pupils will be minors.

I sense a certain outrage in the OP as to 'infringements of rights' - whilst the individual may have a measure of 'Positive' rights (the right to do something, for example, to possess drugs, even if that is against the law - and I would question that right if the pupil were underage) the rest of the pupils have 'Negative' rights, the right to be free from certain activities (being in the company of criminal drug possession, for example). And no matter how one feels about the legality of drugs, as the Law stands at the moment, possession of drugs is a criminal offence and the school authorities have the legal right to prevent that happening on the premises within their jurisdiction.

[BizzyBee]

Would you argue for the protection of society or for the protection of individual rights? Yes or no, no maybes.

[kasie]

Sorry, Bizz, I don't do absolutes! If there's one thing I've learned, it's that there are no Blacks and Whites, only an infinite range of shades of Grey.

I think you can deduce my stand on the situation you quoted of drug searches in schools from my previous post - but then I would say that, wouldn't I? I was in loco parentis for a good many years and I was always very conscious of the fact I had other people's children in my care.