SOME FIND 'ZERO' INTOLERABLE

School Policies Against Drugs And Weapons Trample Student Rights, Critics Say

Liz Armstrong's high school biology students had just completed a quiz
one day last winter when a lesson in constitutional law came barging
through the classroom door.

Five administrators at Highland Springs High School near Richmond,
Va., swept into the room to search students for weapons and drugs. The
officials rifled through book bags and purses, patted down two
students and ordered others to empty their pockets -- but found no
drugs or weapons, says Armstrong, 37. She questioned the legality of
the search and eventually lost her job.

The search, which school officials say fell within their guidelines,
is one of many cited by civil libertarians who say that "zero
tolerance" policies against drugs and weapons tread indiscriminately
on students' rights.

This week, the American Bar Association officially condemned policies
that fail to consider the circumstances of an offense or an accused
student's history.

Many school districts are rewriting rules that led to punishments that
some say far outweighed the crimes. Students carrying Advil, for
example, sometimes have been handed the same punishment as those
carrying marijuana.

The school board in West Windsor-Plainsboro, N.J., decided to
re-examine its rules after a fourth-grade boy's threat to "shoot" a
classmate prompted a late-night visit to his home by police. School
officials later learned that he was threatening to shoot his classmate
with a wad of paper.

Zero tolerance for weapons, drugs and threatening speech in schools
came into favor after shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton,
Colo., in 1999 and elsewhere.

Although several studies have indicated that students are safer in
school than just about anywhere else, the shootings fed the notion
that schools are increasingly unsafe. Many systems adopted sweeping
policies to protect themselves from lawsuits over violence or
complaints that discipline was unequally based on race or other
factors. Such polices often remove much of the discretion principals
traditionally have had in discipline.

At Ballou High School, a public school in a crime-ridden area of
Washington, students pass through a metal detector and a five-person
squad of security guards.

"We pat them down, frisk them," Officer Lakia Hayes-McDuffie says.
"Most of them, they're good kids. I've never found anything major,
just little things they're not allowed to have."

Dozens of incidents have underscored the tension over student rights
and the pressure on administrators to differentiate between eccentric
students and those who threaten campus safety. The conflict has led to
litigation that asks how far schools can go to try to make campuses
safe:

* Tulsa high school sophomore Brandi Blackbear sued in October after a
principal suspended her for 10 days for allegedly casting spells,
putting a hex on a teacher and writing about Wicca, a pagan religion
that involves witchcraft. School officials deny they suspended her for
practicing religion.

* A federal judge allowed high school senior Sarah Boman to return to
classes last February after school officials in Leon, Kan., suspended
her for creating artwork that included the words "I'll kill you all."
The aspiring artist drew a poster that she says came from the
perspective of a madman.

* The American Civil Liberties Union sued the school district in Cobb
County, Ga., in October after sixth-grader Ashley Smith was suspended
for having a chain that attached her "Tweety Bird" key ring to her
wallet. School policy bans chains because they can be used as weapons.

The cases are "a sign that the zero tolerance mentality has gone
overboard. A lot of parents are beginning to see that schools have
lost a sense of proportion," says Jamin Raskin, a law professor at
American University in Washington, D.C. His book, We the Students,
examines U.S. Supreme Court rulings in student rights cases.

"The courts have to blow the whistle and restore a sense of balance to
discipline and punishment in the schools," Raskin says. "It does
significant damage to a young person's life to suspend them for two
weeks because the school doesn't know the difference between a butter
knife and a machete."

Raskin sends law students into Washington-area public schools to teach
constitutional law by using student rights as examples. But some of
Raskin's own students say the need for safe campuses generally should
override concerns about violating students' rights under the Fourth
Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable search and seizure.

"I want to know if my kid is smoking weed during third period," says
Lashon Cole of Takoma Park, Md., a student of Raskin's who has a son
in grade school. "Forget his Fourth Amendment rights. I'm willing to
forgo a lot of things to make sure guns aren't in school and other
kids aren't selling drugs to my kid."

Others see virtue in the increased vigilance to unusual student
behavior. They cite instances in which potential attacks on campuses
have been averted. In Henrico County, Va., school officials have
defended last February's search at Highland Springs. They have cited
school policy that random searches for weapons are justified as long
as officials have a "reasonable suspicion" that a student has a
weapon, drugs or other prohibited items such as pagers and cellphones.

Armstrong protested the search in a letter to her principal and then
to the school district's attorney. She says a school official told her
"a continuation of this would cost me my job." Henrico Schools
Superintendent Mark Edwards will not discuss Armstrong's dismissal.

Edwards says a similar search a few months earlier turned up a loaded
.357-caliber Magnum handgun. "We are mindful of student rights, but we
also believe that ensuring safety is a priority," he says.