LESSON PLAN

Lillian Michaels
October 31, 2014
Rm. 1407
of Rights
Lesson No. 7

10th Grade American Government

Hour: 4

Unit:

The U.S. Constitution/Bill

Topic: The 4th Amendment

STANDARDS, GOALS AND OBJECTIVES:

Kansas Standards for History, Government and Social Studies:
Individuals have rights and responsibilities

Standard 2:

Instructional Goal: To familiarize students with the 4 th Amendments protection

against unreasonable searches and seizures.
Specific Objectives:
Cognitive:
1. The students will describe the circumstances under which a search may be
conducted without a warrant (exceptions to the general warrant rule);
2. The students will describe the consequences of a bad search (the
Exclusionary Rule);
Affective / Psychomotor:
3. The students will explain the importance of the 4 th Amendment limits on law
enforcement;
4. The students will defend a pro or con position on a hypothetical situation
involving a 4th Amendment issue.
PROCEDURE:
1. Introduction. (5-10 minutes) The SearchAn administrator will enter the
classroom just as the bell rings and indicate he has information that a certain
student (lets call her Angel) has been selling marijuana at school. The
administrator will then search Angels backpack in front of the class, then
demand the combination to her locker and the keys to her car so that he can
conduct additional searches for evidence of marijuana sales. For effect, the
administrator and the very upset Angel leave the room.
After informing the class that the accused has participated in this
fabricated search, ask the class:
Were the administrators actions ok?
Did Angel have the right to say no when asked for the locker combination and
car keys? (Note that different rules apply in school than elsewhere in the
community and ask students to imagine this scenario happened in another
setting)
Does anyone know what the 4th Amendment protects against?

2. Video: Your Fourth Amendment Right to Privacy (4:04)

http://content.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,1027506447001_2080296
,00.html
3. Power point and discussion (15 minutes)
C:\Users\Lillian\Documents\Pitt State\SPED839-99\Search and Seizure.pptx
The discussion surrounding the power point presentation should include the
following points:
The expectation of privacy generally extends to a persons home,
vehicle, person and papers and includes purses, brief cases, etc. in
which a person is carrying belongings.

A search incident to arrest is justified by the need for officer safety.

Before placing an arrestee in a patrol vehicle, the officer is allowed to
search for anything the arrestee may have which could harm the
officer. Jurisdictions vary on whether or not items which are felt
through the clothing of the arrestee but are clearly not weapons (i.e.
drugs and drug paraphernalia) may be admitted under those
circumstances in order to prove drug possession.

In a traffic stop search, officers are permitted to search a vehicle for

evidence of the crime suspected, i.e. drunk driving, etc. and not for
evidence of general criminal activity.

4. ASSIGNMENT 1: YES / NO / MAYBE (20 minutes)

Divide the class into 4 groups and assign each group a scenario as follows:
Group 1: A police officer has stopped a car leaving the parking lot of a
suburban elementary school for having a broken tail light. The driver is
clearly sober and is cooperative with the officer regarding the broken tail
light. There is no evidence of any other crime in the plain view of the officer.
The officer requests permission to search the vehicle for evidence of illegal
drugs. The driver politely declines, but the officer demands that she exit the
vehicle, then searches the vehicle, and seizes an unregistered handgun from
the glove box.
The driver is charged with illegal possession of an
unregistered weapon.
Question for the class: Can the gun be used as evidence against the driver?
Group 2:
A party is breaking up as a patrol car rolls up to investigate a
complaint about excessive noise. As two young men are walking away from
the party house, they are approached by officers who request to see their
identification. The i.ds show that the two are under 21 and the officers
immediately notice a strong odor of alcohol coming from both boys. They
also notice that both are exhibiting behaviors which are consistent with
people who have smoked marijuana. When the officers ask where the boys
are coming from, one boy becomes belligerent and soon threatens and
pushes one of the police officers whereupon he is arrested for assault on a

law enforcement officer. In the search of his person the officers discover a
bag of marijuana and a pipe and the young man is charged with possession
of both.
Question for the class: Do the pot and the pipe come into evidence?
Group 3: Police officers are called to the scene of a domestic disturbance in
an apartment building and they respond to the apartment of the person who
called in the complaint. The door is opened by a 4-year-old who says that his
dad is in the bathroom. Through the open door, officers observe a tiger cub
in a cage in the corner. When the dad has finished his business in the
restroom, he is arrested and charged with keeping a dangerous animal within
the city limits.
Questions for the class: Can the cub be used against him at trial? What if
the call had actually come from another apartment and the officers had made
a good faith mistake?
Group 4: After hearing an Amber alert describing an abducted child and the
vehicle seen leaving the area where the child was taken from, a police officer
on bicycle patrol at a local park sees a vehicle matching the description of
the suspect vehicle. The officer carefully approaches the vehicle and notices
there is a man in the drivers seat and the engine is running but the car is in
park. As the officer asks the man for his identification the driver becomes
visibly nervous and the officer notices a childs shoe on the floor of the
passengers side. The officer then hears what she believes to be a soft cry
coming from the trunk of the vehicle. When the driver turns his head to look
for his id, the officer reaches into the car, turns off the ignition and removes
the keys. After asking the driver to step out, she places him in handcuffs for
her safety and requests permission to open the trunk. Naturally, the driver
refuses, but the officer opens the trunk anyway, discovering the abducted
child.
Questions for the class: Will the officer be allowed to testify that she found
the child in the drivers trunk? What, if any, exceptions apply in this
situation?

Give each group 5 minutes to prepare a skit which illustrates all of the
important details in their scenario for the class.

Have the groups present their skits one-at-a-time for the class. At the end of
each skit, have the group read their Questions for the class and lead a brief
discussion.

Encourage students to give specific examples from the power point and
discussion to support their position on the questions.

5. ASSIGNMENT 2 / ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT LEARNING: Angel Revisted (2

minutes) Have the students imagine that Angel was having a latte with some
friends at a coffee shop and that the administrator from the opening scene

was a police officer. And, oh yeah, imagine the officer searched Angels
backpack and found a stolen cell phone. Have the students take a pro or
con position on the admissibility of the cell phone in a trial for possession of
stolen property. Responses should be at least 3 sentences and should refer
specifically to the principles discussed.
MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT NEEDED:
Desktop computer
Projector
Administrator to role play at the beginning of class
ACCOMMODATIONS FOR STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS:
The lesson should not require special physical accommodations. Students with
special needs will be placed in groups of students who are familiar to them and who
are willing to assist them in any way necessary during the group project. Extra time
will be allowed for the end-of-class writing and the assignment may be modified in
any way that is appropriate to meet the needs of the individual student i.e. from
written to verbal response, etc.