Fort Hazelpark City High School Case Study

Introduction This paper addresses several actors and scenarios that take place at Fort Hazelpark City High School (FHCH) that addresses diversity and the law. In April, Sonia Kuhlmeier delivered a final draft of the school newspaper, The Flame, to Dr. Goddard, the high school principal, for final review. Dr. Goddard has been with the high school for several years, and recently the school has been experiencing a significant cultural transformation due to changes in population demographics. The paper that was sent for review had a 2 page article that talked about gangs in the school while referencing a student referred to as “Latin King” and “a Mexican student”. Dr. Goddard pulled the article since there was no real evidence that that any students were actually gang members and for fear of conflict with the increased Latino population. Several teachers were upset and disagreed with Dr. Goddard’s decision regarding the article and made a stance, which ultimately led to repercussions. This incidence has led to several

Goddard is incorrect in his statement to Ms. La Fleur. While the Constitutional 4th Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, a New Jersey state court ruling in New Jersey v. T.L.O. (1985) states that schools could search students and their possessions if the search is based on “reasonable suspicion”. The higher standard of “Probable Cause” required of police is not required of school officials. However, this case enunciated a legal standard of a 2-pronged Reasonableness Test for searches to determine the reasonableness of a search: a). the search must be justified at its inception and b). it must be reasonably related in scope to the circumstances that initiated the search (Knopp, 2013, p. 3.27). Assuming that Bill Choplick had justification for the search that violated law or school rules, Ms. La Fleur is not required to show probable cause or obtain a search warrant before searching students (Knopp, 2013, p.