Supreme Court Case Summary

Words: 602
Pages: 3

In the case of Smith v. Norfolk City School Board (1998), students felt that the use of hand-held scanners were too much of a physical invasion of a person and their belongings. In public high schools in the City of Norfolk, there is a Policy that is outlined in the Student Pamphlet stating: "You and all your property will be subject to random administrative inspections, including those with metal detectors" (Smith v. Norfolk City School Board, 1998). The policy further explains if the detector is activated on their bags the students will be asked to open their bags. If the detector is activated on an actual student, they will be taken into a private area and patted down. In the first part of this case, Smith, one of the plaintiffs, was randomly …show more content…
One month later, his class was chosen in a random administrative search. Smith originally refused to be search, but after a conversation with his teacher in the hallway, understood the severity of what would happen if he did not comply. While Smith was being scanned, he was unhappy and muttering under his breath using profanity. As a result of his behavior, he was asked to go in the hall for the remainder of the classroom search. During this time, his bags were scanned in the classroom and due to him throwing his bag on the floor and it opening, the contents of his bag were considered visible and it was considered not to be an actual "search" of his bag. In another instance, DesRoches, a student in another high school of Norfolk, was randomly selected in the hallway one day. Each time the metal detector was activated, DesRoches was able to provide an understandable reason why (belt buckle, keys, metal clip from clipboard). A month later, DesRoches was chosen again with the same activations. The third plaintiff, Condon, was in class when administration entered to conduct a