This is a good time to review the case law on student searches and the Fourth Amendment. While students certainly have a fair amount of 4A protection, it's unfathomable to me to read cases like NJ v. T.L.O. as a meaning the school couldn't search this kid's backpack. THREAD.
https://twitter.com/AmySwearer/status/1467195968718262284
You can read TLO here: law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projec…
The short version is that the court upheld the reasonableness of an administrator's search of a student's purse for cigarettes after a teacher reported her for smoking in the bathroom. 2/
The short version is that the court upheld the reasonableness of an administrator's search of a student's purse for cigarettes after a teacher reported her for smoking in the bathroom. 2/
The basic premise is that searches must be reasonable at their inception and reasonably related in scope to the circumstances which justified the search in the first place. 3/ 
There's an enormous distance between that purse search and the borderline strip search over aspirin pills held unconstitutional in Stafford v. Redding, which you can read here: law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projec… 4/
Even there, the court held that the underlying suspicion was enough to search the girl's backpack. The problem was crossing the line into borderline strip search, as the "the content of the suspicion failed to match the degree of intrusion." 5/
Which brings us back to Oxford. A kid looking up ammo and drawing very violent images of shootings with that sort of commentary [the thoughts won't stop, help me] is a serious red flag for a serious threat of violence, far beyond the circumstances in TLO and Stafford. 6/
It would be absolutely bonkers to say the school couldn't inquire as to his access to weapons or conduct a basic search of his backpack to ensure he wasn't an imminent threat to himself or others. High stakes. Reasonable, articulable suspicion of danger. Low on intrusiveness. 7/
Again, we're not talking about arresting a kid for finger guns or strip searching him over aspirin. We are talking very serious indications of violence that directly correlate with what we know of school shooters and persons in crisis. This seems eminently reasonable. 8/
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