Strip searches and Advil

The Supreme Court has ruled that the middle-school principal who strip-searched a student in his quest to hunt down contraband prescription drugs was (not entirely surprisingly) in the wrong.

The drugs in question were ibuprofen (technically prescription-strength) and naproxen, which are both available over-the-counter, will not under any circumstances get you high, and at worst may cause some minor stomach upset*. The strip-search in question was rightfully characterized as an unnecessary overreaction, as well as frightening and humiliating for the student.

The only thing I don't like about this decision is that the court opinion upholds that deeply irritating idea that a search of a student and/or his belongings can still be reasonable under the 4th Amendment without having probable cause. I personally think that the perpetual double standard against school children makes no sense at all: we require that they be in school and provide public schools to fill that need, and either a student is protected by the Constitution or not. The latter, obviously, would have some problems, so instead of providing full Constitutional protections there's this weird half-assed gray territory where a search needs to be reasonable but doesn't need probable cause**, and students are free to protest so long as it doesn't disrupt anything, and so on. It just strikes me as jarringly odd.

*Granted, there is an extremely slim possibility that someone could have an allergic reaction, I suppose.
**It's my opinion that if there isn't probably cause a search is by definition unreasonable.