Government Schools
and Unconstitutional Searches
by Dr. Rex Curry

As an attorney, I believe that government schools should be unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment ban of unreasonable searches. The recent police-state raid in Goose Creek, South Carolina is another in the growing list of proofs.
More at http://rexcurry.net/schoolsmain.html

Government schools have a special exemption under the 4th Amendment, a lowered standard that promotes police-state raids. A raid was caught on videotape when gun-toting police burst into a high school, ordering students to lie flat on their stomachs in hall ways as they searched for drugs on Nov. 7, 2003. Police handcuffed anyone who apparently didn't comply quickly enough. The tape showed police waving their guns and searching lockers. http://rexcurry.net/drugdogsmain.html

Worse still, the media reports that the school maintains constant video surveillance of students through various cameras available to police.

During my legal career, parents have asked me if it is wise (or constitutional) for government to control everyone's education.

Government schools create milquetoasts in the same way that Cuban schools create socialists. That is why parents leave their own children in government schools with constant video surveillance and police-state tactics. Government schools in the U.S. are different only in degree from schools in the former U.S.S.R.

The 4th amendment should be improved to specifically include "schools" with the same high standard given to homes. Of course, the only real solution is to end government schools. Many parents have already rescued their children from government schools in favor of the many better alternatives.

The U.S. did not have government schools when the Fourth (and First) Amendment was written. If the authors of the Constitution had foreseen the government's education monstrosity then the Fourth Amendment would have included government schools, and the First Amendment would have banned Congress from the establishment of religion and education.

The Constitution should be amended to include "education" next to "religion." The separation of school and state is as important as the separation of church and state. And for the same ideological reasons. The proposed constitutional amendment is discussed in detail at http://rexcurry.net .

Even if an excuse could be made for the initial creation of some government schools, their ongoing existence is proof of their ongoing failure to educate people to handle their own (or their childrens') educations without government schools.

The Post And Courier newspaper in Charleston reports that Goose Creek high school is one of the largest in the state with 2,760 students. It has an academic reputation as one of the Low country's best. But that doesn't show from the subservient comments of the students and parents.

The media reported that "the commando-style raid has parents questioning the wisdom of police tactics." It is sad that no media reported that the raid has parents questioning the wisdom of government schools. And that is more proof that government schools are dangerous and must end.

A media outlet reported that a parent said "I was just upset knowing they had guns put to their head and a K9 was barking at them and about to bite somebody. It was awful." Only through years of government schooling can a parent say such a statement and not announce that she is withdrawing her student from government schools. She did not even question the constitutionality of government schools per se.

As if that weren't bad enough, the media reports that parents and students are already aware, and have done nothing about, the school's constant video surveillance available to police. The paper quoted a law enforcement officer as saying that he watched school surveillance tapes from four days that showed students congregating under various cameras, allegedly to avoid being filmed. "They know where the cameras are. If they stand directly under them, the camera's don't look directly down," the law enforcement officer told a paper.

The 4th amendment states "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."

Police didn't find any criminals in the armed sweep nor any drugs. Goose Creek police and school administrators defended the draconian measures as necessary for crime prevention.

For more information see http://rexcurry.net/

November 18, 2003