| Background
Summary and Questions
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In
1980, a teacher at Piscataway High School in New Jersey
found two girls smoking in a restroom. At the school,
smoking in the restrooms was a violation of school rules;
smoking was allowed only in the designated smoking area.
The teacher escorted the two girls to the principal's
office, where they met with an assistant vice principal,
Theodore Choplick. One of the girls was T.L.O., a freshman
who was 14 years old. The girl who was with T.L.O. admitted
that she had been smoking; T.L.O., however, denied the
allegation, and said that she did not, in fact, smoke
at all.
Choplick
took T.L.O. into his office and instructed her to turn
over her purse. He opened the purse and found a pack
of cigarettes. He took the cigarettes out of the purse
and showed them to T.L.O., accusing her of having lied
about smoking in the restroom. As he removed the cigarettes,
he noticed a package of cigarette rolling papers, which
he believed were an indicator of involvement with marijuana.
Therefore, he proceeded with a more thorough search
of T.L.O.'s purse. This search yielded the following
items: a small amount of marijuana, a pipe, empty plastic
bags, a significant amount of money in one-dollar bills,
a list of students who owed T.L.O. money, and letters
implicating T.L.O. in dealing marijuana.
Choplick
then called T.L.O.'s mother and the police. The mother
came to the school and, at the request of the police,
took her daughter to the police station. Choplick turned
the evidence from the purse over to the police. At the
police station, T.L.O. admitted that she had been selling
marijuana at school. As a result of T.L.O.'s confession
and the evidence from her purse, the State of New Jersey
brought delinquency charges against T.L.O. in the Juvenile
and Domestic Relations Court of Middlesex County.
T.L.O.
tried to have the evidence from her purse suppressed,
contending that the search violated the Fourth Amendment.
She also claimed that her confession should be suppressed
on the grounds that it was tainted by the unlawful search.
The juvenile court rejected her Fourth Amendment arguments,
although it conceded that the Fourth Amendment applies
to searches by school officials. However, it held that
a school official may search a student if that official
has a "reasonable suspicion that a crime has been
or is in the process of being committed, or reasonable
cause to believe that the search is necessary to maintain
school discipline or enforce school policies."
This is a lower standard than the "probable cause"
standard, which is required when police conduct a search.
The
juvenile court concluded that Choplick's search was,
therefore, reasonable. Choplick was justified in searching
the purse, the Court said, because of his reasonable
suspicion that T.L.O. had violated school rules by smoking
in the restroom. When he opened the purse, evidence
of marijuana use was in plain view; this justified the
further search of the purse. T.L.O. was found to be
a delinquent and, in January 1982, she was sentenced
to one year of probation.
T.L.O.
appealed her conviction to the appellate division, which
found no violation of the Fourth Amendment, but returned
the case to juvenile court for determination of a possible
Fifth Amendment problem with T.L.O.'s confession. T.L.O.
then appealed the appellate division's Fourth Amendment
ruling to the Supreme Court of New Jersey.
The
Supreme Court of New Jersey reversed the appellate division's
ruling and ordered the evidence found in T.L.O.'s purse
suppressed. The New Jersey Court relied on Supreme Court
of the United States precedent to hold that whenever
an "official" search violates constitutional
rights, the evidence may not be used in a criminal case.
Furthermore, the Supreme Court of New Jersey found that
Choplick's search was not reasonable. Mere possession
of cigarettes was not a violation of school rules; therefore,
a desire for evidence of smoking in the restroom did
not justify the search. In addition, the further search
of the purse was not justified by the presence of cigarette
rolling papers.
In
1983, the Supreme Court of the United States granted
the State of New Jersey's petition for certiorari.
In 1985, the Court handed down its decision.
Questions to
Consider:
- Read
the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Using
the words of the Amendment, try to make an argument
that the search of T.L.O.'s purse was a violation
of her Fourth Amendment rights.
- Try
to make an argument that the Fourth Amendment does
not apply to students in public schools at all.
- Under
the circumstances outlined above, does the search
of T.L.O.'s purse seem "reasonable" to you?
Why or why not?
- What
procedures are in place in your school governing searches
of students? Could a search like the one in this case
happen in your school?
- How
should the Supreme Court of the United States rule
in this case?
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