Module 6 discussion topics and concepts

Supreme Court Teaching

Education and the Supreme Court

Ever since education became a major concern of the public and the government in the United States, that Supreme Court has had at least some say in the way that school districts and even individual schools operate. Some decision by the Supreme Court have had more widespread and profound influence than others, and some are far more well-known than others. Brown v. The Kansas Board of Education, for instance, ended the concept of "separate but equal" and legal segregation in public institutions, and is one of the most famous Supreme Court cases of this nation's history. Not all decision related to the operation of schools and the rights and responsibilities of teachers and administrators are so far reaching, of course, but they can actually be more complex and controlling in these terms.

Discipline in public schools, for example, is a common feature in Supreme Court cases involving education. Goss v. Lopez, which was decided in 1975, is one case in which the disciplinary rights of a teacher and/or school administrator was significantly limited. The Supreme Court rules that nine students that had received ten day suspensions from school had been denied their right to due process, as the decision had deprived them of their due process rights. Interestingly, it was only because the state offered a free public education to all citizens that this obligation was entailed in the first place; once the obligation was in place, however, due process was required to deprive any individual of this service. This means that clear and codified systems for suspension and expulsion must be put into place, so that there is actually a due process of law in existence to be followed when circumstances warrant.

In another case, New Jersey v TLO (1985), it was decided that teachers and administrators actually have somewhat expansive rights when it comes to determining if a student is in violation of school policy or the law. Specifically, when a student was accuse y a teacher of having been smoking in the bathroom and the student denied it, her belongings were searched by the principal. This search revealed cigarettes and marijuana, but the search itself was challenged, and this challenge made it all the way to the Supreme Court. There, the justices decided that students had a reduced expectations of privacy at public schools, and that therefore the search had not violated the student's Fourth Amendment freedom from unreasonable searches. This has led to many search initiatives primarily geared towards eradicating drug, alcohol, and tobacco use in schools but has also been applied in searches for weapons and other potentially dangerous or harmful material on school grounds.