Is the school allowed to search our lockers?Yes. Even without reasonable suspicion, school authorities can search students’ lockers, but they must first notify students and give them a chance to be present. This also applies to your desk, because lockers and desks are school property. But that doesn’t mean they can search inside any of your belongings that they find inside your locker or desk, like a closed purse or backpack. To search a closed personal container, the school official must have reasonable suspicion that he or she will find evidence of a violation of school rules or the law inside that container. My stepsister was caught smoking a joint in the girl’s room at school. The next day, the principal searched my locker without even telling me. I was really upset. I don’t use drugs, and I haven’t even been in trouble at school all year. They had no reason to suspect me. Are they allowed to search lockers without telling the students? School authorities can only search a locker without telling you ahead of time if there’s a reasonable suspicion that the locker holds materials that threaten the health, welfare and safety of students in the school. If the principal had no reason to suspect you other than what happened to your stepsister, that doesn’t sound like a reasonable search. But if someone told the principal that she got the joint from you, or the principal had some other reason to think you locker contained materials that threaten the health, welfare or safety of students, then the secret search would have been okay. If they find anything in your locker or desk, like drugs, cigarettes or weapons, can they use it as evidence against you? Yes. School authorities may seize any illegal materials and use them as evidence against a student in disciplinary proceedings. “Illegal material” includes any item banned at school, such as cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, knives and guns. And, there is nothing to stop school officials from telling the police what they have found and giving them the evidence. If the police bring criminal or juvenile charges, then a judge will have to decide whether the search was “reasonable” before the materials taken from you can be used as evidence in the court case. The bottom line is: DO NOT bring anything to school that you don’t want school officials or the police to see. A teacher caught a friend of mine smoking in the bathroom at school. She took my friend’s purse and quickly looked through it. She found some cigarettes, which we’re not supposed to have at school. Can the teacher just search through her purse like that? It depends. You have a “legitimate expectation of privacy” in your pockets, purses or backpacks, since that’s where you put personal stuff like keys, money and photos items. So, if a school official wants to search your belongings, he or she must have a reasonable suspicion that the search will show that you are breaking the law or a school rule. In this case, the search was probably okay because the teacher had a good reason to think she’d find more cigarettes in your friend’s purse. Can school officials conduct strip searches of students? Almost never. Strip searches are so intrusive that they almost always violate students’ privacy rights. But in a few cases, courts have said strip searches were okay because the school reasonably suspected students of hiding drugs under their clothes, and there wasn’t a less intrusive way to search. What can we do if a school official or police ask to search us?If you do not voluntarily consent to the search, there is a possibility that anything found on you cannot be used against you in court or school disciplinary proceedings. If you give your consent to the search, then anything found on you can be used. If you are asked to consent to a search, you should say that you do NOT consent in a loud, clear voice so that witnesses can hear you. DO NOT physically resist a search, even if you think the search is illegal, that can be used against you later.
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