School authorities may search a student’s district issued computer, locker, vehicle on school property or personal items when reasonable suspicion exists to do so, and seize any illegal or prohibited
materials. Such seized materials may be used as evidence against a student in disciplinary proceedings. When school authorities have a reasonable suspicion that a locker contains materials which pose a threat to the health, welfare, and safety of students in the school or violates school rules, student lockers may be searched without prior warning. Searches of the building, school property, and vehicles parked on school property may also be conducted without prior warning.
Students suspected of possession of vaping devices, weapons, drugs or other prohibited items on their persons may be searched by administration, as per Board Policy. Due to the small size and ease of concealment of vaping devices, a security wand metal detector may be used while conducting a search. A student’s refusal to comply with a search when reasonable suspicion exists, shall result in the presumption that the student possesses the item being sought in the search, and the student may be subject to disciplinary consequences for such refusal in the same manner as being found in
possession of the prohibited item.
Policy 226 Individualized Suspicion Searches
Students or their belongings, including lockers, automobiles, electronic devices, purses, backpacks, clothing, and other possessions, may be searched without a warrant when in the school, on school grounds or when otherwise under school supervision, if there is a reasonable suspicion that the place or thing to be searched contains prohibited contraband, material that would pose a threat to the health, safety and welfare of the school population, or evidence that there has been a violation of the law, Board policy, or school rules. The scope and extent of searches must be reasonable in relation to the nature of the suspected evidence, contraband or dangerous material and to the grounds for suspecting that it may be found in the place or thing being searched.
In determining whether reasonable suspicion exists, the building administrator or designee always should be able to articulate what is being looked for, and why it is thought to be located in the particular place to be searched. The scope of a search should be limited to the place or places the item sought is believed to be.
Examination by school staff of text messages, call logs, files, images or other data contained in a student’s mobile telephone or other electronic device, without the student’s consent, normally constitutes a search that must be justified by reasonable suspicion that material in violation of law,
Board policy or school rules, or evidence of such a violation, is contained in the particular files, directories or other data locations being examined in the device.
A student who fails to cooperate with a justified suspicion-based search which is reasonable in scope may be presumed to be in possession of the prohibited item sought in the search and subject to disciplinary action for the possession of the same. For purposes of this paragraph, failure to cooperate includes, but is not limited to, a student’s refusal to allow the administration to search a bookbag, purse or other item to store personal belongings; a student’s refusal to empty their pockets or to remove items that have been placed in their undergarments; a student placing sought after items in their mouth; or a student discarding an item to avoid its recovery.
