109th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5295
AN ACT
To protect students and teachers.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Student and Teacher Safety Act of 2006'.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) The United States Department of Education's National Center for Education
Statistics reported in the 2005 Indicators of School Crime and Safety
that in 2003 seventeen percent of students in grades 9-12 reported they
carried a weapon. Six percent reported having carried a weapon on school
grounds.
(2) The same survey reported that 29 percent of all students in grades
9-12 reported that someone offered, sold, or gave them an illegal drug
on school property within the last 12 months.
(3) The United States Constitution's Fourth Amendment guarantees `the
right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and
effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures'.
(4) That while the Supreme Court affirmed the Fourth Amendment's application
to students in public schools in New Jersey vs. TLO (1985), the Court
held that searches of students by school officials do not require warrants
issued by judges showing probable cause. The Court will ordinarily hold
that such a search is permissible if--
(A) there are reasonable grounds for suspecting the search will reveal
evidence that the student violated the law or school rules; and
(B) the measures used to conduct the search are reasonably related to
the search's objectives, without being excessively intrusive in light
of the student's age, sex, and nature of the offense.
(5) The Supreme Court held in Board of Education of Independent Sch. Dist.
92 of Pottawatomie County vs. Earls (2002) that random drug testing of
students who were participating in extracurricular activities was reasonable
and did not violate the Fourth Amendment. The Court stated that such search
policies effectively serve the School Districts interest in protecting
its students' health and safety.
SEC. 3. SEARCHES BASED ON REASONABLE SUSPICION.
(a) In General- Each local educational agency shall have in effect throughout
the jurisdiction of the agency policies that ensure that a search described
in subsection (b) is deemed reasonable and permissible.
(b) Searches Covered- A search referred to in subsection (a) is a search
by a full-time teacher or school official, acting on any reasonable suspicion
based on professional experience and judgment, of any minor student on the
grounds of any public school, if the search is conducted to ensure that
classrooms, school buildings, school property and students remain free from
the threat of all weapons, dangerous materials, or illegal narcotics. The
measures used to conduct any search must be reasonably related to the search's
objectives, without being excessively intrusive in light of the student's
age, sex, and the nature of the offense.
SEC. 4. ENCOURAGEMENT TO PROTECT STUDENTS AND TEACHERS.
(a) In General- A local educational agency that fails to comply with section
3 shall not, during the period of noncompliance, receive any Safe and Drug
Free School funds after fiscal year 2008.
(b) Definition- In this section, the term `Safe and Drug Free School funds'
includes any funds under Part A of Title IV of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act of 1965.
Passed the House of Representatives September 19, 2006.
Attest:
Clerk.
109th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5295
AN ACT
To protect students and teachers.
END
