I was furious to see this headline from civil liberties guardian the Rutherford Institute last week: "U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Case of Student Subjected to Random Lockdown and Mass Search by Police in Public School."I was furious, but not shocked because, as I'll explain, this has happened before.There has been hardly any attention to the outcome of this case, Burlison v. Springfield Public Schools, which Rutherford's founder and president, constitutional lawyer John Whitehead, says has "long-term ramifications of treating young people as if they have no rights."Here are the facts of the case:"On April 22, 2010, the principal of Central High School (in Springfield, Mo.) announced over the public address system the school was going into lockdown and that students were prohibited from leaving their classrooms."School officials and agents of the Greene County Sheriff's Department thereafter ordered students in random classrooms to leave all personal belongings behind and exit the classrooms (despite the previous order). Dogs were also brought in to assist in the raid.
Student rights are trampled