The other day in my speech class we had to pick topics for a persuasive speech. I was surprised by the number of students in favor of trading away their Constitutional freedoms of expression and privacy. One thing that a lot of my classmates were in favor of was school uniforms. They seem to believe that the wearing of school uniforms will lower the amount of bullying (not a very big problem at my school). I am a strong believer that people don't get made fun of for what they wear, clothes get made fun of for who wears them. Seeming to support my argument, the girl making the argument against me, the homecoming queen, was wearing torn jeans and an old faded sweatshirt. The students in my class were also in favor of randomized drug testing. I was told that in America a person is innocent until proven guilty, not the other way around. It scares me that my classmates are so quick to be assumed drug addicts and think that the only option is to take tests. They also believe that anyone against randomized drug testing is on drugs. Somehow in my school it has gotten to the point where the faculty, without the help of law officers, can do warentless searches of a person or their locker or car without due cause. The students are also in favor of the random searching of cars and lockers. They argue that the car is on the schools parking lot so the school has the right to search it. This isn't true, the car is on a public parking lot and should have the same expected privacy as if it were on a public street. The school is a government entity and thus is limited by the constitution.
I was just wondering, is it just me or are students today raised without rights, and because of this they are quick to fold their rights for no reason. We are US citizens from birth and have the same rights as an adult.
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i agree with you that students should have their constitutional rights upheld at school. I go to a private school, and since it is not funded by tax payers money, we do not really have the "right" to complain about our rights being upheld, if that makes any sense. Our education is being payed for our parents, and the government is not affiliated in any way with funding my school. However, i have witnessed many situation where students were treated unfairly simply because they have no guarranteed rights. I am the student council president, and i think that my classmates and i should have basic rights guarranteed, so i am in the process, with the help of some other students, of writing a bill of rights for my school. I think that students must be given their constitutional rights, and that the basic rights that give us our freedoms are what america is based on--ignoring our rights in school is unconstitutional.
look at two opponents such as ACLU.org and ACLJ.org
Published Author and Poet
Teacher Education Student.