The 3Rs - Rights-Responsibilities-Realities
January 28, 2015

3Rs Lesson Four Teaching Tips

Please review the full email for important 3Rs information!

  

This Friday, Jan. 30, is the regularly scheduled 3Rs Lesson Four classroom visit - 4th Amendment (Search & Seizure).  The Lesson Four materials were packaged along with Lesson Three materials (Police Encounters) picked up earlier in the month.  If you need more copies of Lesson Four materials, you may download a PDF of the student worksheets by clicking here, or let us know and we will be happy to provide you with more worksheets.


Time management: Prepare in advance!  Read the materials for Lesson Four, know what is included and be sure to cover the materials in small groups rather than in full lecture format.  This lesson covers Due Process concepts. 


School closings: We encourage you to check with the schools the day of your 3Rs class in case inclement weather has forced the school to close.  Phone numbers for the schools may be found on the information sheet sent to you attached to your original assignment email.  To check for closings online, click here.  If you discover your school has been closed on Friday, please notify your captain and teammates and Jessica Paine at (216) 696-3525 x4462.  Team captains are asked to reschedule 3Rs lessons cancelled due to school closings according to your teacher and teammates' preferences.

 

Teaching tip for Lesson Four: A time saver is to discuss the reasons why a search warrant should or should not be issued for 935 Bay St., St. Louis, MO, but not have the students actually write them in the spaces provided. 

 

Search and Seizure in the News: If you do find that you have extra time after covering the day's lesson, you may wish to share U.S. v. Jones: the U.S. Supreme Court decided in January, 2012 that extended warrantless use of a GPS tracking device attached to a suspect's automobile constitutes an unconstitutional Fourth Amendment search.  The Court held that wherever the government physically invades a constitutionally protected area in order to gain information, a search has occurred. Persons traveling on public roads have no "reasonable expectation of privacy" in their vehicles, and thus the government may visually monitor their movements without raising constitutional issues of unreasonable search. In this case, however, the government did more than a visual inspection of the vehicle: it physically entered upon the vehicle by placing the tracking device, and such a physical occupation is a search.  The issue in the case is similar to State v. Johnson, heard by the Ohio Supreme Court in October, 2011.  State v. Johnson was vacated and remanded by the Ohio Supreme Court in light of the U.S. v. Jones decision.  
 

Team feedback: Your feedback is vital to the program. Team captains: please let us know about your experience during the first three visits, especially names of teammates whom you were unable to contact and any issues that need to be resolved before Friday's lesson.

 

Questions, concerns, feedback: Please contact us by email or telephone - Jessica Paine at [email protected] or (216) 696-3525 x4462.

 

Thank you again for your commitment to the students!

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