Countering Criminalization: Toward a Youth Development Approach to School Searches

Sarah Jane Forman, Washington University in St Louis

Abstract

Every since New Jersey v. T.L.O., the dominant narrative, particularly in inner-city schools, has been that school children are dangerous and violent, drug dealing, gang affiliated, and out of control. Under the rubric of school safety, students are stripped of the full protection afforded by the 4th Amendment while being subjected them to a model of school discipline that utilizes law enforcement officers to enforce school rules. Such policies alienate targeted youth from mainstream society, increasing the lure of counter-culture ideas, decreasing the legitimacy of the rule of law, and feeding the school-to prison pipeline.

In section one, I examine and critique the current paradigm of school search jurisprudence which largely ignores age as a factor in determining the reasonableness of a search. I also address the increased use of police officers to enforce school discipline. Drawing on neuroscience and developmental psychology, in section two I discuss the developmental needs of youth, in light of recent Supreme Court cases involving the rights of juveniles. I also examine positive youth development, an approach that focuses on strengthening youth by encouraging healthy development.

Section three focuses on the developmental implications of search and seizure practices in America’s public high schools and seeks a way to strike a developmentally appropriate balance between safety and privacy in the context of school searches. To encourage positive development, adolescents’ burgeoning sense of autonomy must be nurtured and supported rather than diminished and disregarded. I call this a ‘positive youth development approach’ to school searches.

In conclusion, I suggest doctrinal and policy changes that counter the trend of increasing youth criminalization by encouraging positive youth development. I argue that, if implemented correctly, probable cause is more a developmentally appropriate standard. Therefore, it should be the unitary standard in school searches.