OwlManAtt’s Blog

WTNH has hosted a discussion
about my story. A few people have participated, and I threw in my response to what they said.

To summarize, I said that if you want to kill people, you are going to do it, and no amount of security at the school-house door is going to change this.

For reference, here it what I had to say, so I’ll have it for years to come…

I’d just like to respond to a few of the more common points I’ve seen raised here.

First and foremost, yes, I understand very well what happened in the Columbine massacre. Two highschool students conspired to ‘last out against society’ by shooting up people at their school.

My question to you is /how is this possibly relevant/ to the metal detectors? There is absoultely *no chance* of them preventing two more insane teenagers from doing the same thing in New Haven, and I seriously doubt they were installed with the intent to deter people like /that/.

Tell me. If you were a crazed teenager, who had been pushed around, hated the world as a whole, had a history of making death threats, etc., and you wanted to go out in a blaze of glory, would you REALLY go through the security checkpoint before you pulled out your .45s?

So the question; what do these measures prevent? Anybody wishing to do damage with a pipe bomb or .45 is already past the point of being able to be deterred. So I will turn to fights between students — fist fights with the potential to escalate, if somebody is carrying a knife.

I had it explained to me last Friday that the bookbag searches entail your bag being opened, and somebody looking into the bag and/or ‘feeling’ it over to make sure nothing is in there. This would prevent someone from bringing a 12″ dagger in, yes. You have me there; large weapons *will* be found at that point.

But what about a smaller knife? Say, three to five inches. A four four inch is considered a deadly weapon in this state, if my memory serves me. Yet if one were to put that in, for example, a binder contained in my bookbag, it would slip through undetected.

So, obviously, that cannot be stopped, either. Where does that leave us? What ‘middle ground’ between my two examples — Columbine and fist fights turned bad — is this helping?

If nobody can suggest one, then I will pose this question to you all: What is the point? To placate an angry parent after her child was murdered in a school, regardless of the fact that I have clearly shown that this provides no security benefit?

Next, to those who think I am foolish for wanting a policy to back up the searches — are you aware these have been going on for years at Cross and Hillhouse? They had *MORE* than sufficient time to put the policies in writing. But they chose not to. I cannot draw any conclusion, however, because all I have to go off of in this matter are theories.

And Gene B. - you make a few very good points, although I disagree with you on others. Kids /do/ need to respect their elders, and adults /do/ need to treat teenagers as if they are people and not dogs. To put it more simply, people need to treat other people as people.

And I will point out that I have been incredibly cooperative with the administration of my school, and they have shown me the same respect. They understand my concerns and the way I am expressing it. I made sure to say that I had no personal vendetta against any of them. On all points but one — the search — I have cooperated with our principal and the faculty.

And Glenna - you also make a very good point. I /do/ see this type of thing snowballing. In fact, it *is* snowballing, and people do not care enough. The NSA has been accused of some astounding things, yet there has been a disturbing lack of public outcry.

I would like to thank you all for your comments. I do appreciate the fact that people are now discussing this. If you wish to contact me to continue debating, I am reachable at owlmanatt@gmail.com.

Again, thank you all!

Today was another day. Two reporters from the Advocate showed up at the school today, as per our conversation last night. They wanted to follow me in and photograph me as I refused to consent to a search. Unfortunately, a cop and one of the administrators ran out and told them to leave the school grounds.

There’s so much more detail I could provide there…for example, the administrator was very, very blunt with the poor reporters. He told them to leave and refused to show them the school policy forbidding reporters from being on school grounds. Ten minutes later, I spoke with the administrator and he was very casual about it all, as if he didn’t /actually/ care.

But, you know, I’m really tired now. Tired as in weary and tired as in sick of it all. I left another message with the lawyer I mentioned, Arlene DePino talked to us and I’ve a message left with her, I spoke with the reporter from the Advocate a bit more.

So, you know. I refused. They put me in the office for awhile, then I went and sat with Ms. Clark, then I sat in the conference room. I read a lot of The Silmarillion today. I did a bit of work on a paper. I talked to a few people who were interested in why I was sitting around all day.

I did a lot of thinking these past few days. About my rebellion. Education. Life, the universe, etc. (I decided that the answer is 42, by the way). And I have come to a course of action.

Everything revolves around tomorrow. The Final Stand. My last attempt. Tomorrow, I will address the crowd mulling around the building, waiting to be treated like criminals. I will tell them that I appreciate how they’ve all expressed their support for the cause, but the time has come to back up those pretty words. I will not continue my protest if absolutely nobody there truely does not care about their privacy. And then I will call for everyone present to refuse to be searched, to make a statement to the superintendent and the board. We, the people you are trying to impose upon, will not stand for this.

If I am successful in that endevour, I shall play it by ear. But I expect to fail, simply because I bet that they just were pretty words. They can complain all they want, but until they show commitment, nobody will take them seriously.

On Monday evening, I will be present at the Board meeting where they introduce the new policy. And then, I will terminiate the relationship between myself and the New Haven school district. It will be a cold day in hell before I allow any officer of the school to trifle through my effects and bark orders at me. And Dr. Mayo and his ilk will not have the satisfaction of seeing me submit.

I have nurtured the seeds of rebellion. It is my war, and mine alone. As I was told earlier in the week, I broke it, I bought it. And I will see this through to the bloody end, even if I do not wish to leave Career.

We’ll see what happens, my readers. We’ll see.

I went to school again. Today, they wanted everyone to submit. I did not see anyone ‘randomly’ picked to not go through.

When I got up near the front of the line, I asked the administrator overseeing everything if the policy had changed. He said no, so I said I refused. He nodded and told me to go stand off to the side, just like yesterday. Both of us really had a ‘whatever’ attitude about it, too. I wasn’t going to argue any more; I made my points. He wasn’t going to argue either; the district had made their own points.

So once again, I watched. Today, the angry cop who had been barking at students was on wand duty. He kept yelling at people trying to pick their bags up for standing too close to the metal detector. We still had plenty of orders barked.

It may also be worth pointing out that Mr. Williams was on the floor. He left shortly after everyone had gone through.

I watched. I watched everyone go through. It didn’t hurt any less than last time, but I watched.

Finally, Ms. Clark and Ms. Coggins called me over. They said that they had already been told by the superintendent’s office that they would have to send me home if I refused. I asked them on what grounds the superintendent was sending me home on, since they had admitted to having no policy on WTNH, but neither of them knew. At the end of the day, I handed Ms. Clark a note and asked her to deliver it to Ms. Coggins. It asked that she procure the superintendent’s reasoning, in writing, and forward it on to me for my records.

Ah, but I get ahead of myself. I went off with Ms. Clark to her office so we could update the report. She spent a few minutes on that, then went over the copy of my schedule she had to ensure it was accurate. She was very good about getting my assignments for me, too.

I also spoke with guidance about alternatives. I doubt going to another school district is a long-term solution. So I asked about home schooling and about the dropout process. They’re possibilities. I’m simply looking into my options. She gave me some phone numbers to call and get more detailed information that she could come up with off the top of her head.

So then they tried to call Momma Evans and tell them I was coming home. But, no dice; she was out grocery shopping all morning. So I sat in Ms. Clark’s office and worked on history and English.

After awhile, they still had no contact. A truant officer from the board was sent out to Ms. Coggins office and asked to carry a letter saying I was being sent home. I spoke with him briefly. He was a pretty nice guy. He got up to go deliver the letter, but Ms. Coggins stopped to ask if he would call when he delivered it or if he would come back and make his report in person. He said he’d call.

With that, he left, not to be heard back from. He apparently did show up around here and say he was from the school, although he failed to identify himself as a truant officer. He handed the letter off and asked to have something signed. Momma Evans told him she wasn’t signing anything and ordered him off the property.

And, like I said. Nobody heard back from him. If he did call, his message got lost somewhere in the school, because I sat in the ground floor administrative suite until the bell rang. And they call that an absense…

No matter. I went home and left a message with a laywer that we had been referred to by another one. He’s supposed to be something of a constitutionality expert, from what I gather. I don’t know where that will get me, but…you know. We’ll see.

I did not hear back from Alderwoman Arlene DePino today, either. Nor the ACLU. Nor the Register. Nor the state attorney general (fat chance).

But I did hear from the Advocate. I’ll provide more details on this tomorrow…hehe.

Other important events of the day were relayed to me by Louis. For one, an excellent article about him showed up in the New Haven Independent. I thought it was much better than the interview I did. He focused so much more on the big picture, while I nitpicked district policy.

I also spoke with a junior at the Cooperative School for Arts and Humanities, yet another member of our illustrious district. The girl, who requested I do not share her name or the name of her friend, were asked to step into the search line at their school. They looked at it and decided that it would be too long of a wait, so they refused to enter it. The school official supervising them accepted their refusal and had them go into the other line. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. I feel so safe! What would I do without all of this half-assed ’security’ in New Haven!

A message with an update about what happened today was left on Sara Welch’s voicemail (she’s the WTNH reporter I worked with). I’m not expecting a call back or anything; I just wanted her to know how the story turned out.

The last thing I want to mention is the incredible amount of kudos I was given today by, um, everyone in the district I saw. I had a number of teachers give me winks, whoots, and other such applause. Students kept looking at me and telling me they saw me on the news, one said thank you, and other said they really respected what I was doing.

That trend continued all day. Staff would give me approving looks as they walked by me sitting in the conference room, looking rather bored. When I showed my face at the end of the day, a lot of people commented on seeing me on the news. Some folks down town said hello to me. Hell, a number of people sent me private messages on MySpace saying how great I was.

I got some IMs, too. Louis knows a few people at my school who wanted to talk to me, so he gave out my little-known screenname of OwlManAttTFC and I continued getting m4d props from people.

Hm. Tomorrow will shape up to be an interesting day, nonetheless.

I remember the day they formally opened Hana’s Dream, a handicapped-accessible park. The most notable event of that day was the fact that I stood next to a reporter as he, you know, reported. I ran home to see myself on the news as a minor character in the background.

Never did I dream of a day my little crusade would leave me as the top story for WTNH, with my face displayed proudly in the fold of their website. Yes, friends, enemies, and innocents, I followed through! I poked the bear.

Sadly, I made no great victory today, despite it all. But regardless, I shall tell my tale, for the sake of documenting it all, without any flashy cameras or pretty words or worries.

I wanted to go to school this morning. I packed my bag with my books and binder. But I also threw in three copies of my essay, the district policy book, and the letter that was sent to parents regarding the security measures. I rode for war.

I take the city bus in to school in the mornings. I get off at a corner, so I usually walk up the side of the school parking lot, cut through it, and end up at the back door. As I did that this morning, I saw the door that leads into the atheletic office (and on to the cafeteria) propped open. As I walked by, a student entered the building via this door.

So I finally came ’round the cafeteria’s outcropping and saw a massive crowd of Career students mulling around. Initially, I thought the metal detector had broken or there was some other hold up. But I was wrong; they wished to check about 95% of the student body. That…took awhile. I cannot imagine that being done in the winter time or on a rainy day by virtue of the attitudes students would take when forced to stand in the rain for half an hour…

So I very slowly made my way into the lobby and approached the administrator overseeing the whole mess. I stepped up to him and initiated a conversation I had rehersed and planned for a thousand times over the past three days. I began by asking him on what grounds the school wished to search me. He said they were looking for weapons. I asked if I was suspected of having such an item, and he said no. So I whipped the infamous quote from the handbook out of my memory and retorted with that.

At that point, I was essentially told too bad. Then I stated I was going to call the police, and the administrator did a double-take and re-evaluated me. He called over one of the officers milling around our checkpoint and told him to deal with me.

I explained that the searches were unjustified according to district policy and that I would not submit. He looked to the administrator and asked what he should do with me. It was decided I should stand off to the side and wait until the searches were concluded before dealing with my issue.

So there I stood. I watched probably half of the student body pass through the checkpoint. I simply stood, looking at everyone going through. Some of them made eye contact. Many of them knew what I had done without having to ask. Some simply ignored me. And others looked as if they wanted to ask, but were to polite to do so.

The time I spent standing there and watching was the most chilling period of time I have ever experienced. Our setup is very basic; we have a table where you put your bag and empty your pockets out on to. Somebody paws through your bag and slides it down the table. Then you step up to the detector and step through the portal. If it beeps, you are told to spread your arms and scanned with a wand.

What transpired was, to simply put it, repulsive. A police officer was behind the table, barking orders at the children. Stop. Walk. Spread your arms. My kinth were spoken to as if there were common, petty criminals. I once experienced a trio of policemen apprehending somebody they suspected of drug abuse. What I saw happening in the school–some of our best and brightest being ordered to throw their arms up–reminded me of that.

Let me reiterate that point. I saw children. Being treated. Like petty users.

And this is the ’security’ the district has given us. Such heroic acts!

But I digress. After all of that was said and done, the issue of my fate was once again the topic of the moment. I spoke with the administrator for a few minutes and gave him the overview of my reasoning. He was very reasonable. I made sure to explain that what I was doing was in no way personal, and that I was sorry that he and Ms. Coggins had to be the ones to deal with the problems. My qualm is with Dr. Mayo and his ilk, not our faculty.

A man walked into the building. I was told he was head of security for the district. He seemed unconcerned by the entire issue, and said if I objected, I should just be sent home and I could come back with my parents to argue. The administrator did not want to do that, so we went to find the princpal of the school.

Once again, I explained my reasoning. The issue that we all disagreed upon was whether or not the policy was changed. The staff, at first, told me it had changed. I asked to see it, and they said they did not have it to show. We reached a point where I said that they were asking me to argue against or adhere to a secret policy that nobody has seen yet, and I believe I convinced them (at least that I would not be turned from my course, if not of my argument).

My mother was called at this point. She pretty much told the school to stuff it. She was incredibly displeased that they had handfisted this ‘policy’ through AFTER the orientation and gave us exactly ONE day of notice before it was implemented.

So, next came the ineviable step. The one I had been prepared for since I first set eyes upon that bastard checkpoint. They needed to throw me out, or else set a dangerous precedent which would have been taken advantage of by the rest of the student body (I would have seen to that personally).

Our principal did not want to do it. She wanted me to go to class, but she understood what I was playing towards. So she picked the phone up and called level two tech support. The office of Dr. Mayo.

It took a few minutes to get somebody with authority on the phone. And they said what I expected; send him home. So that is what we did.

I went and spoke with another administrator and did a load of paperwork. After about half an hour, I was dismissed. It is worth noting that they wanted to dismiss me with work to do. They went so far as to call my teachers up and get the assignments. Unfortunately, the effort was in vain because nobody handed me the sheet when I was given a packet of papers to leave with, so I had to go collect the assignments myself.

So, I left. I walked into the city, past Uma Thurman filming some idiotic movie. I stopped at Subway and got a drink. And I went home.

As soon as I got home, I left a message with the ACLU of CT. They have not responded to a single query of mine, but I hope I can grab their attention. Then I left a message with my alderwoman, Arlene DePino. Then I put a call in to the news desk at WTNH. Then I send a pair of e-mails, one to the Register, the other to the Advocate. Finally, I sent an e-mail to the state attorney general, for good measure.

Then I bided my time. At some point in the afternoon, I got a call from someone from the superintendent’s office. I believe they had some kind of emegency meeting, based on what Ms. Coggins told me that morning. He called to tell us that there was no policy, but there would be one, and I am expected to follow it.

So then and there, they admitted I was right. They admitted that I had indeed found a flaw. I found they jumped the gun and put things into effect before they could justify them. I shone a light upon a massive scandal involving the district violating their policies and searching Cross and Hillhouse kids for years.

And what came of it? An apology? Was anyone asked to resign? Were there any reprimands?

Of course not. We’re just children. We don’t matter. I doubt these men will be held responsible for what they have done. I doubt I will ever recieve an apology from the office that deined me a day of my education without any justification whatsoever. But so is America….

I called the WTNH press desk up again and relayed this information to them. Later on in the evening, I was contacted by Sara Welch from WTNH. She talked to me on the phone for awhile. Then she talked to momma Evans. Then she made a few calls and talked to someone from the district office. Finally, she called me again and asked if she could come over and do a breif interview.

So she came. At this point in time, I was very … conflicted on where to take my little crusade next. It was all well and good that they are patching the hole I found. But where does that leave me? With a half-assed attempt at security and with some random clown wishing to paw through my bookbag every morning?

Really, I made no progress with today’s events. As of Monday, I will be required to submit to a search, and I am back to square one. And that search will never take place. Ever. I know what I said to the reporter contradicts this, but I have thought on it a lot. And what it comes back to is that I will not allow anyone to pick through my things like that. If this is the price they ask for an education, then I have no need for the services of New Haven’s school district. Those were not just pretty words in my paper; I will follow-through on them.

So tomorrow, I shall see what happens. I don’t believe they have any grounds at all to continue the program or send me home upon until Monday. And I may not even be asked tomorrow.

And I already question the constitutionality of whatever new ‘policy’ they are writing. School of Americas Watch v. Columbus, GA pokes a pretty nice hole in any possible policy they can cook up. But it shall be interesting to see.

I am going to seek information on…alternatives to the school system tomorrow.

So at 10 and 11 the story ran. Arlene DePino called after the first airing in response the the phone messages she had from us. She will be contacting me again tomorrow regarding me speaking in front of a board of something or other. We’ll see…

At the behest of Dr. Reginald Mayo, New Haven Public Schools are being equipped with metal detectors and students are asked to submit to random book bag/purse searches and metal detections. It is clear that this practice is both unlawful and implemented in an incredibly foolish way that will not increase the security of a high school.

First and foremost, I will attack the practice of ‘random’ searches. On September 12, 2006, the first day Career Regional Hill High School began the searches upon entry, I observed that, on average, only one out of four students were selected to be searched. This ratio does vary significantly, so in some circumstances one out of eight or one out of two may be selected.

The benefits provided by this ‘random’ process are negligible. For instance, it is possible for a student to ‘luck out’ and smuggle a weapon into the building. One may argue that the potential of being caught is enough to stop most teens from attempting to smuggle a weapon into school, but I will counter that if a student is this angry or depraved, the chance of being caught will not have significant impact upon them.

Being asked to submit to a search would also merely serve to expedite a Columbine-style shooting because detection of the weapons is imminent. If your intention was revenge against the school, you would just start firing into the crowd waiting to be sorted into the ’search’ and ‘pass’ lines instead of going through the checkpoint. I can think of little remedy to a situation like this, and I will concede that the searches are not being conducted for the sole purpose of preventing mass-murder, but to discourage people from carrying knives or guns to use when a fist-fight breaks out in the halls.

The metal detector was collapsed after a certain point in the morning, and the checkpoint was no longer used. If a student is determined to smuggle a weapon in, they need only to report to school late and they will have no fear of being searched. Alternatively, a determined student could ‘forget’ a bag at home and have their parents bring it to them later in the day. With the checkpoint decommissioned until the next morning, the parent may inadvertently bring a gun or other weapon into the building and hand it off to a student.

Other possibilities to smuggle weapons in exist. Every single door is not guarded, and our doors lock from the outside, so a student who had successfully passed through the checkpoint could open a door to allow somebody bearing a weapon inside. A knife or gun could be placed in a trash-can just outside of the building for retrieval during lunch or when students are moving from class to class. It is obvious that any determined person could get around the security measures with ease.

I, Nicholas Evans, was asked to step into the search line on September 14, 2006. I told the administrator sorting us into lines that I refused to consent to a search, and I was allowed into the building unmolested. The implications of that are incredible; if I am armed, can I simply refuse to submit to a search to get around the checkpoint? If this is the case, what is the point of the entire program?

That said, the acceptance of my refusal may have only been a fluke. A student at the Metropolitan Business Academy would not consent, and he was refused entry to the school. Attached to this document is his testimony.

So once again, I believe that the practice of the random searches provides us with a learning environment no safer than one without the searches. I recognize that the ‘randomness’ of the searches is due in part to the limited resources of the school; one metal detector and set of guards for searching over eight hundred people between seven-thirty and eight ‘o clock is a daunting, but noble, task. In the end, however, is is a fruitless effort, for reasons I have already explained.

Secondly, I believe that these searches are being conducted without the grounds required, as outlined by the New Haven Public Schools Administrative Procedures handbook. Pages 43 and 44 deal with the searches of students and their personal property.

The section titled ‘Student Searches’ states that:

School authorities are authorized to conduct searches of students or their property if there is reasonable grounds at the inception of the search that indicate a particular student is in possession of an item or a substance that represents a material threat to school routine or is prohibited by school board regulations or by law.

The section goes on to define what items are considered a student’s property and when it is appropriate to search them. As defined by the handbook, purses and book bags are considered ‘personal property’.

This clearly suggests that if the school wishes to perform a search, they require some notion that a student is carrying contraband material with them. I am unsure as to whether or not ‘metal’, as detected by a metal detector is considered contraband or not (I will assume not!), but a bigger issue lies here.

Students were being asked to unzip their bags and be prepared for a search before they even walked in the door. Even I was asked to do so, although I was only one asked to allow a searched of my bag or to step through a metal detector. Based on this observation and the requirements for a student search, as defined by the school system’s handbook, I can conclude one of two things. Either entering the building is enough reason for the school to think I have contraband (and if this is the case, I no longer wish to make use of New Haven’s public education system), or that the school is disregarding the constitutional right to be free of unreasonable searches (and again, if this is the case, I no longer wish to attend such an institution).

I spoke with a school administrator regarding the new security measures on September 15, 2006. This administrator told me that the program was put into place to combat a rise in violence in our community over the summer, but that no students were suspect. This individual stressed that no students were suspected of anything.

This implies that the searches are groundless because no student is being suspected of anything. Again, the policy regarding student searches is clear that the search may only take place if there is an indication that ‘. . .a particular student is in possession of an item or substance that represents a material thread to school routine or is prohibited by school board regulations or law’. And if this is so, then the searches are indeed groundless.

Another observation I made as I walked by the scene was that students were required to submit their bags to a search prior to even stepping into the metal detector–and, for the purposes of brevity, I will not disagree that the presence of metal is enough to justify a search at the moment– then the search is still groundless.

If you are unconvinced that students are entitled to be free of unreasonable searches in a school environment, I will direct you to the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of New Jersey vs.T. L. O. Justice White stated that, in the case of the principal of Piscataway High School, “. . .we are faced initially with the question whether that Amendment’s prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures applies to searches conducted by public school officials. We hold that it does.”

Additionally, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that individualized suspicion that a student is carrying contraband is required in DesRoches v. Caprio, et al. In this circumstance, a pair of tennis shoes had gone missing and a school official searched the bags of every student in an an art class.

In DesRoches v. Caprio, Judge Murnaghan of the circuit court not only upheld New Jersey v. T. L. O., but stated that “Therefore, in the present case, there is no question but that DesRoches enjoyed a legitimate expectation of privacy in his backpack so as to trigger the protections of the Fourth Amendment.”

School of Americas Watch v. Columbus, Georgia is another case that casts considerable doubt upon mass-metal detector searches. Here, a group of protesters were asked to pass through a security checkpoint, much the same as the one at Career High School, before they could gather for their protest. Judge Tjoflat of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals was very clear on the matter:

The plaintiffs’ first contention is that the mass, suspicionless, warrantless
magnetometer searches violate their Fourth Amendment right to be free of
“unreasonable searches and seizures.” We agree.

Again, I can only draw the conclusion that the searches are groundless and unenforceable by my observations and the rulings of federal courts. I am at an absolute loss for what possible justification Dr. Mayo had when he called for schools to implement this policy. It lacks a legal basis and there is minimum benefit involved as far as student safety goes if we continue on in the manner we have done so today.

TESTIMONY OF LOUIS BRENNER

Louis Brenner is a student of the New Haven school district. On September 15, 2006 he was turned away at the door because he refused to be searched. He stated the following.

On the drizzly day of 9/15/06 I got off my bus to enter The Metropolitan Business Academy and found myself stopped by a security guard. He said: “please put your book bag on the table and take out any metallic objects on your person” I looked him in the eye and said “I do not consent to an unwarranted search – I would like to exercise my 4th amendment right” his reply was “you have to.” I looked him in the eye and said “No I do not, I do not consent”. I was then asked to step aside and wait. A teacher asked me to call my parents on my cell, which I did. He asked my father what he was to do and my father said that I am old enough to make my own decisions and do whatever the book tells him to do. Well, apparently there is no book because I was not suspended nor were the police called; I was just told I could not enter the building unless I gave my consent. My father made his way to the school as I sat in the drizzle and sketched up some outlines for a flyer to hand out first thing Tuesday.

REFERENCES

WTNH. “Metal detectors ordered for New Haven high schools.” September 8, 2006. September 12, 2006 <http://www.wtnh.com/global/story.asp?s=5381137>.

University of Missouri-Kansas. “New Jersey vs. T. L. O.” January 15, 1985. US Supreme Court.September 12, 2006 <http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/tlo.html>.

FindLaw. “Individualized Suspicion Required For Student Searches.” December 1, 1998. September 12, 2006 <http://library.findlaw.com/1998/Dec/1/128937.html>.

Franklin Pierce Law. Center. “DesRoches v. Caprio, 156 F.3d 571 (4th Cir. 1998).” September 23, 1998. Steptember 12, 2006 <http://www.faculty.piercelaw.edu/redfield/library/case-desroches4thCir.htm>.

New Haven Public Schools Administrative Procedures. Connecticut: New Haven Public School District, 2006.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. “D.C. Docket No. 02-00171 CV-CDL-4.” October 15, 2004. September 16, 2006 <http://www.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/ops/200216886.pdf>.