Search and Seizure

Board of Education Policy 5145.12: “The Board acknowledges the need for the in‐school storage of student possessions and shall provide storage places, including desks and lockers, for that purpose. Where locks are provided for such places, students may lock them against intrusion by other students or third persons, but in so such places shall the students have such exclusivity as to prevent examination by school authorities.

The school authorities are charged with the responsibility of safeguarding the safety and well being of the students in their care. In the discharge of that responsibility, they may investigate the presence of any substance or object the possession of which is illegal or poses a hazard to the safety, good order or general well‐being of the school whenever and wherever there is reasonable cause to believe the presence of any such substance or object.

The right to inspection of students’ school lockers and students’/ visitors’ cars parked on campus is inherent in the authority granted school boards and administrators and should be exercised so as to insure parents/guardians that the school, in pursuing its ‘in loco parentis’ relationship with their children, will employ every safeguard to protect the well‐being of those children,” which may include the use of law enforcement canine (K‐9) units.