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Virginia Tech

Public School Law: Student Search and Seizure in K-12 Public Schools

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

School officials are constantly challenged to perform a myriad of duties in an extremely complex and demanding job with numerous responsibilities. They are expected to work with a variety of students, faculty and parents under difficult circumstances. "Faced with multiple needs, with the necessity of making fast decisions in an atmosphere of fragmented time, administrators are liable for everything they do." School administrators need to understand the rights guaranteed to students by the Fourth Amendment and how it applies to the school setting. This document will provide an overview of student search and seizure in kindergarten to 12th grade (K-12) public schools in a non-traditional dissertation (non-experimental design) format by providing an historical review of the relevant case law. Specifically, based upon legal research, it will review relevant Supreme Court cases, post-New Jersey v. T.L.O. federal, Pennsylvania and other state court cases related to search and seizure in K-12 public schools. The conclusion and summary will provide answers to the guiding questions, provide a conceptual model, outline what is a reasonable search, and provide a short practical school law exercise to test the reader's understanding of search and seizure in public schools.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Doctor of Education
Level thesis:degree_level
doctoral
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
Department dc:contributor.department
Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2006

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Bedden, Dana T.
Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Salmon, Richard G.
  • Alexander, M. David
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Janosik, Steven M.
  • Ruffin, Santee

Subjects

dc:subject × 5

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-03102006-174524
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/26409

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Bedden, Dana T.. Public School Law: Student Search and Seizure in K-12 Public Schools. doctoral thesis, Virginia Tech, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/26409