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AS68 – Search and Seizure

  • Effective: 6/28/1977
  • Revision: 2/25/2014
  1. Board Directive
    School officials are charged with protecting the health and safety of all students and promoting the effective operation of the schools.  Fulfillment of these duties may conflict with a student's right to and need of privacy.  The interest of individual students in securing personal privacy must be balanced against the interest of society in protecting students against disruptive or illegal conduct by other students.  The Board delegates to the Administration the responsibility for determining policy in order to permit school officials to carry out their duties while preserving a student's reasonable expectations of privacy.
  2. Administrative Policy
    1. A search shall be conducted or directed by a school official who has the responsibility for maintaining school discipline, or by a designee of the official.
    2. A school official may conduct a search of a student or a student's effects when:
      1. The official has reasonable grounds to believe that the search will turn up evidence of a violation of the law or of school rules; and
      2. The measures taken to conduct the search are reasonably related to the objectives of the search and are not excessively intrusive in light of the circumstances, including the student's age and sex, and the nature of the infraction.  The measures taken to conduct the search include those taken to compel a student's compliance with the school official's requests.
    3. The school district regulates the use of school property, and may also regulate vehicles brought onto school property.  School officials may undertake surveillance of school property and of vehicles located on the property.  An official, who has reasonable grounds to believe that a search of a vehicle will turn up evidence of alcoholic beverages, controlled substances, weapons, stolen property, or other violation of either law or the rules of the school, may ask the driver of the vehicle to open the vehicle and may inspect the vehicle in the driver's presence.  If a driver fails to comply with the requests of the officials, or if an inspection turns up any of the above-mentioned evidence, the official may take measures reasonably calculated to maintain the safety and proper control and management of the school, including disabling the vehicle until police or parents can be summoned.
    4. While lockers, desks, and other storage areas are provided to students by the school, the school retains control and access to all lockers, desks, and other storage areas.  These areas are assigned to students for their use on the condition that they will be used in a manner consistent with the law and school rules.  School officials may conduct inspection of these areas at any time, with or without the student present, in order to fulfill their responsibility of maintaining proper control and management of the school.  A school official may inspect the contents of these areas under the standards for conducting a search as specified in this policy.
    5. School disciplinary procedures may be brought against a student who fails to comply with the reasonable requests of a school official.
    6. The police may be contacted or called in at the discretion of the school official.
    7. The fruits of a search conducted under this policy may be:
      1. Turned over to the police for inspection
      2. Used in a judicial proceeding
      3. Retained by a school official for use in a school disciplinary proceeding
    8. In addition to searches permitted under one or more of the preceding sections, a school official may conduct a search of a student, a student's effects, a vehicle driven by the student, or other property controlled by a student if the student voluntarily gives consent to the search.
    9. School officials may require, as a condition of granting students the right to use parking facilities at the school, that students and parents give consent to reasonable searches of student vehicles parked on campus.