Elementary and middle school students are just kids, and their daily lives at school should involve engaging classes and meaningful social connections. However, the rights of young students often come under fire and clash with their schools' need to keep their campuses secure. When it comes to searches—pockets, lockers, backpacks, electronic devices, and more—there are some limited situations where school officials may be justified, but it's far from 100% of the time.
The Lento Law Firm believes that elementary and middle school students should be able to enjoy their time at school without forfeiting their privacy rights. If teachers or school officials conduct unreasonable searches on students, any evidence of crimes or violations should not jeopardize the student's future or academic career.
Call the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team today at 888-535-3686 or fill out our confidential online form to get the help you need to protect your young child.
School Safety Balanced Against Student Privacy Rights
Schools, especially those serving young children, have an obligation to keep students and staff safe while on campus. Threats can come from outside sources, but schools must also monitor students for potential dangers such as drugs, weapons, or prohibited items. Unfortunately, this means some students are swept up in overzealous protective measures, subject to unfair, unwarranted searches of their person and property.
It's important to remember, however, that middle and elementary school students retain their Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures, even on school grounds. The Fourth Amendment generally protects against any form of search that does not have a valid law enforcement reason backed up by evidence of potential criminal activity.
Despite broad protections from the US Constitution, the Supreme Court case of New Jersey v. T.L.O. typically allows school officials to conduct a search if they have a "reasonable suspicion" that a student is violating school rules or local laws. Whereas police are bound by a probable cause standard, schools have more leeway and fewer restrictions when it comes to searching for the purposes of school safety.
Reasonable suspicion is a two-part determination. First, for a search to be reasonable, it must be justifiable at its inception. This means that the facts known by school officials should be concrete, and the likely outcome of a search should be obvious evidence of criminality or school policy violations. They cannot search students simply due to a belief or intuition.
Next, the search should be reasonably related in scope to the initial objectives of the intervention. If school officials catch wind that a student has marijuana in their backpack, they cannot reasonably continue a search after a backpack search shows no evidence of drugs. Continuing to search a student's locker or pockets would likely be seen as overstepping the initial scope of the search.
The Supreme Court case of Safford Unified School District v. Redding perfectly illustrates this component of the reasonableness standard. School officials searched a young 13-year-old girl after another student accused her of carrying ibuprofen in violation of school policies. After an initial search showed no evidence of ibuprofen, officials went so far as to strip-search the young girl and investigate her underwear. The court's majority opinion found that these further searches violated her rights, as reasonable searches must be "reasonably related to the objectives of the search and not excessively intrusive in light of the age and sex of the student and the nature of the infraction."
There may be some situations where searches of young students are valid, but school officials do not have complete authority over students and their property when they are on campus. If your young student was searched or subjected to invasions of privacy during the school day, contact the Lento Law Firm today to learn how we can help.
Why Searches of Younger Students Are Different
Compared to high school students—some who may even exceed the age of eighteen—elementary and middle school students are significantly more vulnerable to having authority figures infringe on their rights. Young children may not fully comprehend what is happening to them or why, and they tend to be more agreeable to authority figures they trust. Most states require school officials or resource officers to immediately contact parents when they detain a student for searches or questioning.
Teachers, principals, and even school resource officers should exercise extra caution to make sure they don't pressure young students into forfeiting privacy protections. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, and parents must step in to protect them after the fact.
In addition to the general concerns that come with searching young children, the demographics of the students being searched relate back to the reasonableness standard we discussed. Per capita, more high school students will carry drugs, weapons, and other illegal items compared with elementary school students. For school officials to search young children, they require strong evidence that searches will uncover what they are looking for. The majority opinion of Safford Unified School District v. Redding mentions the age and sex of the student as factors, on top of the second component of the reasonableness test.
A child's age can also impact the "justified at its inception" standard for reasonable searches. In addition to whatever preliminary evidence school officials used to initiate a search, courts often look at the:
- Age of a student
- Criminal history of a student
- Permanent disciplinary and academic record of a student
- Experience of involved school officials with the issue at hand
When you look at these factors combined, it becomes hard to justify the search of a young child with no history of misbehavior, conducted by school officials who have never searched a student and found evidence of similar crimes or violations. Very, very few elementary school students carry drugs or weapons. Without serious suspicion and evidence, courts may side with young students and their parents who contest the validity of one of these searches in court.
Every student maintains privacy rights on campus, but young children deserve even more protection. The realistic chance of school officials catching a young child in the midst of a criminal act is extremely low, and if they want to search an elementary or middle school student, they better have a good reason to do so. If your child was searched at school and you are concerned about its validity and impacts on your student's future, call the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team today.
Types of Searches: What Can Be Searched, and How?
Our previous examples involved students being searched by school officials to find evidence of crimes or school violations on their bodies or in their pockets. Still, those are not the only types of searches to worry about. Young students bring personal belongings to school every day and leave certain belongings at school overnight. As you review these potential avenues for searches, remember that the reasonableness standard protecting the privacy rights of young students remains in place.
Backpacks, Bags, and Personal Items
Backpacks and bags are often the first places school officials look when they suspect wrongdoing. Administrators can search a student's bag if they reasonably suspect it contains contraband, such as drugs or weapons, or any other item that runs afoul of school policies.
To search a backpack or bag, school officials must actually have a reason to suspect the bag contains what they are looking for. If a teacher watches a student shove a cigarette in their pocket, searches to find that cigarette should ideally remain focused on the student's pockets. Searches that escalate to full bag inspections are an overreach, especially considering the age and clean disciplinary history of most elementary and middle school students.
Lockers
Lockers are school property, which can sometimes mean that students have an inherently lower expectation of privacy for belongings stored inside lockers. Schools often argue that because they own the lockers, they have the right to search them at any time. While this is generally true as part of a reasonable investigation, similar to a search of a student's pockets or backpack, a random, warrantless search still violates student privacy.
Electronic Devices
The Supreme Court has not explicitly ruled on all privacy issues related to electronic searches in schools, but lower courts have upheld the "reasonable suspicion" standard for other types of searches. At the same time, schools generally have more authority over school-issued devices compared to personal smartphones. For example, if a student is suspected of cyberbullying using a school-owned tablet, the school will have an easier time searching those messages compared to messages coming from a personally owned device. Depending on the agreements parents sign at the beginning of the year, the school may have unquestioned authority to monitor those communications.
Who Can Conduct a Search of Elementary and Middle School Students?
Schools have massive amounts of responsibility to teach and protect students, and parents have a wide range of opinions on how much power we should give schools, especially with nationwide concerns about school shootings. Searches for the purpose of policing are a completely different story, and the standards change when teachers and principals are not the ones involved with searches.
Unlike most school officials, School Resource Officers, or SROs, are considered law enforcement officers. They have full arrest powers, and despite part of their responsibilities involving student safety, they still have a focus on criminal behaviors and charges.
State v. K.L.M.is a case involving a principal who asked an SRO for help searching a student suspected of selling drugs. The court later ruled that because the SRO conducted the search, the higher standard of probable cause required of police searches should have been applied, and the evidence was suppressed. If the principal alone searched the student for the purpose of school safety, this search would likely be valid.
Details matter; if you want to protect your child from further punishment or harm due to a school search, you have to know who conducted it and under what pretenses. Call the Lento Law Firm as soon as possible, and we will uncover the relevant facts that can challenge the validity of a search.
How Parents Should Respond to Searches of Their Young Student
If your child's school has searched them without your consent, you have options to fight back, challenge its legitimacy, and protect your child from further harm. The first thing you need to do is determine who conducted the search, what they were looking for, and why they thought the search was necessary. If you believe the search was unjustified or overly invasive, it may be time to take action. Even if they uncover evidence of a crime or school violation, it's always worth thoroughly scrutinizing the search to uncover avenues for defense.
Remember, the Lento Law Firm can assist parents from the moment they learn of a search. As a parent, you do not need to undergo the arduous task of investigating the situation—leave it to our Student Defense Team. We are committed to protecting students from unlawful searches and guaranteeing that schools respect the constitutional rights of young elementary and middle school children.
Defending Student Privacy Rights in Elementary and Middle Schools
While maintaining a safe school environment and campus is vital, schools cannot trample over the rights of young, vulnerable students to meet this objective. Elementary and middle school students deserve to feel safe, not just from external threats but also from unjustified invasions of their privacy.
At the Lento Law Firm, we aim to protect students from unfair searches, especially when their age and history don't provide school officials with valid reasons to invade their privacy. Evidence of school policy violations or criminal activity that only came to light due to unreasonable searches should not impact a student's future. Our Student Defense Team is prepared to argue against the validity of unfair searches, whether in negotiations with schools or in a courtroom.
If your young elementary or middle school-aged student has been subjected to a search that you believe was unlawful and unreasonable, the Lento Law Firm can help. Call our Student Defense Team today at 888-535-3686 or contact us through our website to begin defending your child's rights.
