Pro Speech

My partner and I must uphold the pro side of the resolution: Resolved:
In United States public k-12 schools, the probable cause standard
ought to apply to searches of students. To proceed into this debate, we
must take into consideration the next concepts:  Probable Cause
Standard is a requirement found in the Fourth Amendment that must
usually be met before police make an arrest, conduct a search, or
receive a warrant. Ought is used to indicate what is expected or as a
moral obligation according to the Meriam Webster Dictionary. In the
Oxford Dictionary search is defined as to try find something by looking
or otherwise seeking carefully and thoroughly. Framework: The
opposing team has to prove that without the probable cause standard
there is offered a better school environment, values are being
cultivated and students feel more secure at the same time their
constitutional rights aren’t being violated.

CONTENTION 1: The status quo of reasonable suspicion standard

for public school students is problematic and non-efficient.
Sub-point A: With reasonable suspicion the subjective violations of
school rules are disproportionately enforced against minority students
could very well indicate that police in schools are more likely to have
their “reasonable suspicion” raised against such students. Additionally,
minority students are more likely to feel the full weight of student
searches’ practical harms because those students are more likely to
face criminal charges for anything found incident to those searches.
Sub-point B: The reasonable suspicion standard is built upon a special
needs premise that, when applied to public school searches as they
function today, is inconsistent with broader Supreme Court doctrine. In
fact un-warranted searches get evidence 12% of the time, but
warranted searches get evidence 80% of the time (Professor Max
Minzner of University of New Mexico in the Getting Beyond Intuition in
the Probable Cause Inquiry in Penn State Law eLibrary).
CONTENTION 2: Schools must strike a balance between the
student's right to privacy and the need to maintain school safety.
This Balance is the Probable Cause Standard.
Sub-point A: Students in U.S. public schools have the Fourth
Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches. This right is
diminished in the school environment. By not determining this balance
the police officers and the government don’t know when to start or stop
searching and end up violating the student’s rights as a citizen.
Sub-point B: According to the A.S v. State of Florida 1997, four
students huddled together, one with money in his hand and another
with his hand in his pocket, does not provide reasonable suspicion, but
they got searched anyway, this qualifies as an unreasonable search
therefore violation of their privacy and abuse of power.

CONTENTION 3: Reasonable Suspicion creates a criminal

environment inside the school.
Sub-point A: In recent years, the connection between schools and
police departments has become even closer. As a result, not only are
children “being treated like criminals in school, but many are being
shunted into the criminal justice system as schools have begun to rely
heavily upon law enforcement officials to punish students.” – Harvard
Law Review, Policing Students (April, 2015)

Sub-point B: From 1997 to 2007, the number of police officers in

schools rose by 55%. – Harvard Law Review, Policing Students (April 2015).
This type of environment is the one which creates distrust. A school
where minors are treated as criminals in their place of learning, and
thus, feel like criminals is not a school completing its moral obligation to
create law abiding citizens raised in values.
Contention 4: It is unconstitutional to exclude students from their Fourth
Amendment.
Sub-point A: The United States Constitution, clearly states in the Fourth
Amendment that “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses,
papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be
violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath
or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the
persons or things to be seized.”
Sub-point B: Just as a manager is expected to enforce company rules to manage
employees, it is the responsibility of the states to enforce the Constitution to
manage the federal government. The states are the rightful and logical enforcers of
the Constitution. It helps to keep this in mind in the discussion which follows. The
constitution was made to protect your rights.

Public schools with higher percentages of students receiving reduced-price lunch

have a higher daily police presence than other public schools. So those too poor to
avoid a bad public school may end up in the criminal justice system at least
partially because of their school’s failure to meet acceptable standards.