New Jersey V Tlo Comparison with Tinker V Des Moines

You ever have a moment at school where something happens to you and you can't help but feel that somehow one of your rights was violated? Whether it be from an angsty teen point of view or from someone who's graduating valedictorian the possibility is definitely there. Throughout the years schools and students have run into conflicts that have led to cases being taken all the way up the pyramid to the supreme law of the land, the Supreme Court. It was there that the cases were ruled upon and decided once and for all if whatever transpired was within the guidelines of the Constitution or if they had been violated. Two good examples of this are the 1984 "New Jersey v. TLO" and the infamous 1969 "Tinker v. Des Moines".

In 1984 a case was appealed to the Supreme Court by a high school student named Tracy Lois Odem. In her New Jersey high school she was caught smoking in the bathroom with one of her friends; they were taken to the office and questioned by the assistant vice Principal Theodore Choplick. Her friend confessed that they were smoking whereas Tracy claimed she had never smoked before, Choplick took her into his office and asked her to hand over her purse for him to search. During his search he found a pack of cigarettes, a small amount of marijuana, rolling paper, money and letters and other condemning evidence. Tracy claimed that the search violated her Fourth Amendment which is the right against unreasonable searches. The case made its way all the way up to the Supreme Court and in a 6-3 decision the court ruled that the search was entirely constitutional as there was reasonable circumstance to check it. Much how like police have the right to search as long as probable cause is there. The effects of this case are far reaching within all of the United States school systems as teachers had a Supreme Court sponsored decision to seize and search the property of students if they had reason to believe that they were hiding something. However sadly this has come to be abused by some teachers thinking they can seize anything without any reason or want to and if the student doesn't comply s/he are often punished even though they're completely in their constitutional right as long as there wasn't a probably cause.

The more famous and well known 1969 case of Tinker v. Des Moines was a incident that happened in school but also a demonstration against the whole government and the Vietnam war. One day three high school students, John F. Tinker, Mary Beth Tinker, and Christopher Eckhardt all decided together to wear black armbands with the symbol of peace on it in protest to the Vietnam war and in promotion of the Christmas Truce put forward by Senator Robert F. Kennedy. The school board took action and enacted the policy that