The practice gives our administrators influence over questionable students in questionable situations. If teachers and administrators suspect a student of carrying drugs, a stolen item or a gun, they need some right to ensure their ability to monitor and uphold school rules and policies in the interest of other students' safety. As the recent rash of school violence has shown, preventive measures are necessary. Loca parentis is one of the best of these measures. At any rate, administators reserve their loca parentis rights to search and seizure for students usually deserving of suspicion.
Most suspects are repeated troublemakers, who have been caught breaking school policy.
Administrators are not scheming ways to keep the innocent student body down. They merely keep loca parentis in their backpocket as a last-ditch insurance policy in troublesome and suspicious cases. The policy ensures students and faculty's safety and gives students needed guidance in the absence of their parents. But what many students might not be aware of is the statute of loca parentis, a common school district code that grants teachers and administrators the right to serve as students' legal guardians at school. The code gives grave allowances to school faculty to violate students' civil rights by unwarranted searches and seizures.