Deterrence Is Aim of School Searches

Re “Opposition Grows to Searches of Students,” June 19: Sometimes I feel like I have outgrown much of my decades-long affection for the American Civil Liberties Union. I understand that a freedom lost a little soon becomes a freedom lost a lot. But there must be room left for the common good and common sense. With any freedom, the interest of society is weighed against the rights of the individual. Society wants and should have safe schools for its children. Students want to be treated fairly and assumed innocent until proven otherwise.

It seems to me that the LAUSD policy of random searches answers both needs. It causes the occasional bad seed to think twice before bringing a weapon to school, and it is not accusatory of the innocent individual. Does it keep all weapons off campuses? Of course not. Does it help? Certainly more so than no policy at all.

Jim Turner

Granada Hills

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The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate. It has also ruled that administrators have a duty to provide a school environment that is safe and conducive to learning. Perhaps ACLU lawyers should be at schools to make the wisdom-of-Solomon calls daily. Random weapon searches, like fire and earthquake drills, were a fact of life in the L.A. Center for Enriched Studies, where I taught in the 1990s. Administrators randomly selected whole classes to search with wands, giving notice to teachers, who could request a change if a test was scheduled. Students were not forewarned, and the gender of the searcher matched that of the students searched. The objective was deterrence. The key was that all students in a given class were treated equally and with respect.

Betty Raskoff Kazmin

Willard, Ohio