An allegation of drinking some spiked lemonade at Western Albemarle High School led to a 10th grade girl getting pulled out of class and forced to take an on-campus, police-administered breathalyzer test. With the test allegedly finding no trace of alcohol, a Charlottesville-based civil rights organization contends that the school trampled the student’s Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches.
“That’s not a good idea if you want to protect freedom,” says John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute. “It’s a good idea if you want a police state.”
WAHS Student Breathalyzed?
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18 responses to “WAHS Student Breathalyzed?”
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This doesn’t seem like a case that should have involved the administering of a breathalyzed by the ACPD.
The two false accusers should face some disciplinary action. The teacher did the right thing, reporting the accusation to the administrators. The administrators should have shown better judgement. If she didn’t seem impaired then she probably wasn’t impaired. I can’t believe the school system through the spokesperson is defending the handling of the matter. This was poorly handled, admit it, learn from it, improve.
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Once you start testing the teachers and staff all this will stop.
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What sort of testing are you talking about?
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The same test the student had to take.
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This provides an excellent teaching opportunity for the children – about their rights, about the Constitution, and about how, should they be accused – falsely or justly – they need to demand parental and/or attorney accompaniment.
And that they need to trust the authorities only so much.
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Authorities depend on training complacency and acquiescence.
For example:
ACLU seeks information on Michigan program that allows cops to download information from smart phones belonging to stopped motorists.
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Authorities depend on training complacency and acquiescence.
For example:
ACLU seeks information on Michigan program that allows cops to download information from smart phones belonging to stopped motorists.
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Ok, that is totally crazy. How is that legal?
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next… body cavity searching.
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If they can tell you not to walk to school, one of the most basic rights,
they can tell you anything. It is really up to the parents though. If they
are willing to go along with it, they deserve it…-
i kind of agree with ed (…and no i don’t need to do a breathalyzer myself..). I would inform my kids to reject such tactics as mandated to do a breathalyzer at school (unless of course they’re getting in a car to drive a vehicle). Admins should send the kids home if they suspect alcohol, similar to other non allowed school behavior (fighting, etc). Let the parents deal with the admin&child to the validity of the acquisition.
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Well, here’s my “current events”/Constitution lesson for Tuesday at 11 am. My 7th and 8th graders read the Constitution in March, and there is no end of current cases to look at . . .
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Sadly, I’d wager that this isn’t even being mentioned in the public schools’ classrooms.
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Oh, I’d wager it is, just not in the way the county school system would want it to be.
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The ACLU used to publish a “student’s rights” handbook. I found it pretty enlightening; you might find it useful. I checked online and it looks like ACLU chapters in other states have state specific handbooks but I couldn’t find one for VA.
http://acluva.org/tag/students-rights/
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From a commenter who would rather be anonymous:
my daughter said this was at the WAHS Junior/Senior Prom held at the Jefferson Theatre and that students know they can be tested or searched by police at school or at any school event, simply because another student or someone else accuses them of illegal behavior. This girl was not inebriated. I asked my daughter why the kids who clearly were inebriated at prom were not tested … she shrugged her shoulders. Guess no one accused them . . . ?
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ah, she was mistaken. it was a classroom and two other students were the “credible” sources of her being inebriated. Seems to me it would be more acceptable if an administrator saw the ‘deed’ and/or the parents were called first.
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Something doesn’t add up, are there two different incidents or are stories getting the “telephone” treatment?
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