I have a sort of extremist take on this: students are literally prisoners. The job of a high school is to keep students from harming each other, feed them, and occasionally teach them something.

It’s why one of the highest offenses is to leave school grounds during school. Ditto for prison.

In that light, of course students are suspects. They’re already guilty of not being adults. They’re not allowed to have jobs, or to decide what they want to learn, or any of the other things that make adults human.

I don’t know what to do about it, but recognizing it seems step one.