Final Draft

America is a beautiful country, the best country in the world in fact. Unfortunately, like all countries across the world, America has its share of problems. Some of the biggest problems American faces is a problem with both drugs and violence. These problems have become so bad that they have begun to infiltrate Americas’ schools, both public and private. According to the National Survey of Substance Abuse Attitudes, quote, “In 2000, more than 60% of teens said drugs were used, kept, or sold at their school,” and now, in 2009, that percentage has increased (http://www.gdcada.org/statistics/teens.htm). There is rate of seriously violent crimes is at 5 per every 1,000 students (http://youthviolence.edschool.virginia.edu/violence-in-schools/national-statistics.html). Some people believe that the best way to combat this threat to America’s youth is do regular searches of student’s lockers and possessions, so that these illegal items may be confiscated and kept out of the school itself. Others find that this is an extreme violation of student’s personal privacy. These people believe that the school has no right to do this. I personally believe that, to effectively combat this threat, schools must have the ability to search students and their possessions to check for illegal items. The reasons that schools should be able to search students locker is because schools are responsible for student’s safety, drugs and weapons aren’t allowed in schools, and the schools are public property.
One of the top priorities of schools, both public and private, should be the safety of students. If students are injured at school or cannot attend school because of the aforementioned illegal activity, they cannot learn. Since the number one reason for schools is to teach Americas children, this cannot be allowed to happen. Also, if students are injured while attending school, lawsuits will be inevitably pressed, whether it is the fault of the school or not. This will cause a tremendous amount of trouble for the school. Also, that the school was allowing illegal activity to occur on their ground, whether they know of it or not, will not help alleviate their troubles.
Distributing drugs is illegal activity, as well as being in possession of any type of weapon in a school. This reason alone should be reason enough for schools to search student’s lockers and possessions. Ninety-nine percent, if not all, schools take some type of severe disciplinary action for this type of offense. My school expels students for at least a semester for drugs and alcohol, and at least one year for guns or a Disciplinary Review Board meeting for weapons other than guns. As long as the school has reason to believe that a student may have either drugs or some sort of weapon, the school should be able search the suspected student’s possessions and lockers. This is how it works in the real world, and should be how it should work in schools, since school is inevitably supposed to prepare students for the real world. Another thing to reinforce this point of view is that the school, if it is a public school, is public grounds.
All public schools are built on public land. Private schools are on private ground. This breaks down to students lockers are not their own, but rather the schools property. The lockers are essentially on rent from the school to the students. For this reason, schools should be able to search student’s lockers whenever they deem it to be necessary. This reason alone does not make it acceptable for a school to search a student’s personal possessions. However, this is justified above.
The argument about what is acceptable and what isn’t acceptable for a school to do has been a discussion that has been ongoing for quite some time. There are some issues that have very easy and definitive answers that require very little, if any, discussion and debate. There are other issues, however, that have very difficult and obscured answers. These issues must be deeply discussed. I personally believe that schools should have the ability and right to gain access to student’s lockers and personal possessions. This allows them to possibly prevent violence or drugs to infiltrate the school. This will have a detrimental effect on students and how effectively they learn while at school. Since a schools number one priority should be for students to learn and to prepare them for the next stage of life, it is essential to prevent drugs and violence entering the school. This is the most prominent reason schools should be able to access student’s personal possessions, so that they can be safe and effectively learn.

Here's my final draft.
For extra Credit.
Thanks