If your locker is considered personal property then your school may not search your locker unless it has a reasonable suspicion that it may find something against the law or school rules. Schools have more leeway than police when searching students pockets backpacks lockers and other belongings but there are limits.

Search And Seizure In Schools

The use of locker searches has proliferated in recent years due to continuing threats of drugs and violence.

Locker searches in schools. On June 7 the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled 5 to 2 that officials at Madison High School in Milwaukee had acted legally in 1990 when they. But if your locker is considered school property then your locker can be searched. Lockers are considered school property and the laws about school searches of lockers can be much laxer.

Generally any item that is considered property of the school can be searched without letting the student or the parent know. But students dont completely give up their constitutional rights as soon as they enter the classroom. In Cass dogs were used to sniff the lockers while this was not a search under the Fourth Amendment it was considered a search under the state constitution.

In the name of safety some school officials might pat down everyone going to a school dance confiscate students smartphones and go through their texts or pictures search everyones lockers and conduct random drug tests. With rising danger in schools locker searches seem like the right thing to do. Many school officials view locker searches as an indispensable tool to deter negative behaviors and on the whole lower courts seem clearly to side with the efforts of school officials to curb crime by conducting locker searches.

School policy provided that lockers were subject to search without warning only on reasonable suspicion and school officials had pass keys to all lockers the court held that students have a minimal privacy expectation in the lockers. 1 A school principal vice principal or principals designee may search a student the students possessions and the students locker if the principal vice principal or principals designee has reasonable grounds to suspect that the search will yield evidence of the students violation of. Schools may have a policy on this and must be provided to students upon request.

School staff can also give permission to the police to look in your locker or desk even though you use it. Supreme Court did uphold the application of the Fourth Amendment to searches conducted by public schools. Locker searches are common occurrences in American public schools.

If you search their locker randomly and they have personal matters such as photos or letters that they hide in there and you look at it they would feel less comfortable and not trust you. But See State v. Schools shouldnt do locker searches because they could be implying that students are untrustworthy but not only are they indicating that locker searches may make the students have lack of trust.

Your school must give you notice that your locker is school property such as in student handbooks or posted signs on. The Fourth Amendment and School Searches In 1984 The US. A locker is owned by the school and loaned to the student therefore entry is always legal.

Locker searches can be localized to the lockers of suspected students or drug-sniffing dogs can alert administrators to lockers that may contain illegal substances or drug paraphernalia. Use of student and locker searches The state or jurisdiction s you selected. Besides its effectiveness in practice the very presence of a school locker search policy can be an effective deterrent.

With this legal authority schools should flex their rights and protect their students.