cannabisnews.com: Lockyer Limits School Drug Searches Lockyer Limits School Drug Searches Posted by FoM on December 02, 2000 at 08:45:24 PT By Greg Lucas, Sacramento Bureau Chief Source: San Francisco Chronicle In an opinion that could affect hundreds of California school districts, the state Attorney General has ruled that drug searches of student backpacks outside of the student's presence violate the U.S. Constitution. The seven-page opinion has the effect of law unless changed by legislation or a court case and means school districts that use drug-sniffing dogs for random tests may have to change their policies. "It would be unreasonable and thus unconstitutional under the federal Constitution and the California Constitution to separate the students from their personal belongings in order to have the belongings sniffed by drug detection dogs," Attorney General Bill Lockyer wrote in the opinion. At least 300 of the state's more than 1,000 school districts use dogs to sniff out guns or drugs. Some districts, like Fairfield-Suisun Unifed, employ in-classroom drug searches similar to the one Lockyer found illegal. Others, like Castro Valley Unified, use dogs only to sniff student lockers and cars and would likely not be affected by the ruling. The opinion was sought more than one year ago by the Oxnard Unified High School District. The district wanted to know if the drug policy it was considering was legal. It wanted students to leave their personal belongings -- backpacks, purses and jackets -- in their classrooms and go somewhere else while dogs sniffed them for drugs. If a dog found drugs, the student's belongings would be searched by school administrators without the pupil's permission. Long before Lockyer's ruling, the district opted for a less intrusive search policy -- using dogs like Castro Valley does only to sniff lockers and cars. "When we initiated canine detection in 1999 we decided because of our attorneys and their concerns we would take a prudent perspective on the searches," said Ralph Gonzalez, director of instructional support services for the district. Lockyer's opinion found that separating students from their belongings is an illegal "seizure" under the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches or seizures. Lockyer said that although school officials are not required to get a warrant or have probable cause to search a pupil's belongings, their search needs to based on suspicion of student wrongdoing. That was not the case here, making the searches illegal. "In this situation presented, the described procedure would be conducted on a random basis," Lockyer wrote. "Thus, no suspicion, individualized or otherwise, much less reasonable and articulable and premised on objective facts, would be present. Moreover, the property would be seized from the immediate custody and control of the students, who then would be physically separated from their personal possessions." Many of the California schools that use drug-sniffing dogs contract with a Texas company called Interquest Detection Canines which conducts searches at some 1,000 schools in 14 states. Michael Ferdinand, a vice-president of the company, said the searches done by Interquest are similar to the one described in Lockyer's opinion but not identical. Students do leave the classroom and their belongings remain, Ferdinand said, but no search of a student's possessions is conducted without the student's permission. Ferdinand estimated that between 70 and 80 percent of the approximately 300 schools Interquest contracts with conduct classroom searches. "We have conducted classroom inspections since 1994 and have yet to have a defined legal challenge as to whether it's a violation of Fourth Amendment rights," Ferdinand said. "You have to weigh individual rights against the interests of the whole."Note: He says it's illegal to sniff out backpack if student isn't there.E-mail Greg Lucas at: glucas sfchronicle.comSource: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)Author: Greg Lucas, Sacramento Bureau ChiefPublished: Saturday, December 2, 2000Copyright: 2000 San Francisco ChronicleContact: chronletters sfgate.com Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/Forum: http://www.sfgate.com/conferences/ CannabisNews Articles - Student Drug Searcheshttp://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=student+drug+searches END SNIP --> Snipped Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #9 posted by spainchik on October 10, 2001 at 17:05:42 PT: Its good to check lockers untold Who cares about parents! Lockers are school property whether you like it or not! [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by spainchik on September 29, 2001 at 16:17:43 PT: school searches Imagine that you have a daughter that goes to public/ private school and someone takes a gun to her school and puts it in his locker. Now imagine that during lunchtime when everyone is eating lunch, he goes and gets the gun so that he can open fire in the cafeteria. Now imagine that your daughter was one of the unlucky ones and gets shot and dies. No imagine if there had been a locker search early that morning and the prinicipal had found the gun in the locker and the police came and arrested this person. Now ask yourself a question would I rather have my daughter come home safe and sound even though her privacy is being taken away, or would I rather have her come home in a box? [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by Ethan Russo, MD on May 22, 2001 at 11:18:17 PT: You Are So Right Monique, I am so sorry for what happened to you, and applaud your efforts to create change.It is only when sensible people such as you rise up against the madness that things will improve.I hope that, as soon as you can, you will vote early and vote often. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by Monique on May 22, 2001 at 08:27:33 PT: searches without reasonable suspicion! I'm a sophmore in highschool and when our english teacher asked us to pick a debate topic I chose drug searches. I've seen so mnay inncocent kids get searched. Why did they get searched? Because an ex-friend got pissed and "said" they had drugs on them1 No proof. Just "said". Thats bullshit! Yet they wouldn't search my ex-buea when 4 people reported him having a weapon on him, after he threatened to kill me!! Whats wrong with this picture. Kids in this school who have a reputation of being good A+ kids get searched for the hell of it and then get reputations as crack heads and that sticks! wheres the reasonable suspicion?? [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by Tyler Brongo on April 02, 2001 at 20:43:26 PT: keep it silent I am now a freshman at college, however i still keep in touch with my high school, particularly because my brother is a history teacher there. My friend (who is a senior in high school) told me that after three o'clock on two certain days the school would be off limits to anyone including faculty and staff. I asked my brother about the whole situation, what he told me was rather shocking. He said that without the consent of neither the students nor parents they were doing drug searches after school hours. So literally, thousands of people were left in the dark about their property or their childs property being searched. If anyone had drugs in school, what kid in his right mind would just leave them laying in his or her locker overnight. I guess that the school and the police thought that maybe the students and parents didn't need to know about this and that they were better off settling it by themselves. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by freedom fighter on December 02, 2000 at 17:37:33 PT Hey Zy Tell your friends to save bong water and put it in spray bottles. Go to school early and start spraying everywhere. Teacher lockers etc.. Watch the dogs go batty!Dogs be barking everything.They make war with kids. KIDS can fight back! [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Zypherpn on December 02, 2000 at 16:09:57 PT: Its Sick im 19, went to high school in fresno california, we had drug dogs on campus once a week specifically to search lockers, then twice a week they would hit 1/4 the classrooms on campus, stop the class for 15-20 mins, make us go outside leaving our stuff inside, and walk past the dogs out of the classroom, (they tried to make that part not so noticeable, but the dogs were right there...) and i even saw a kid get expelled for having pain reliever (i think it was advil) was a small bottle prob had max 10 200mg pills in it, she wasnt allowed back at the school for like 4 days, and in the mean time our classes were cut short by about an hr or 2 a week, due to drug search bullshit.... i left the school when i was 17, took the CHSPE (california high school profiency exam) and went off to college, where people were smokin pot w/ their professors, just makes no sence.....not to mention i believe the year i left the highschool, they started doing the searches to the local jr high, and were even bringin the dogs around campus of the elementry (not searchin rooms, but walkin the campus at lunch ect...)i think its stupid, but if u spoke up about it you got hell, they threaten the kids as well as search them...not to mention the Dare program, teaches the wrong message about drugs then tells the kids to turn their parents in, where the parents get taken to jail and the kids ripped from their homes.....war on drugs is about the stupidest thing ive ever seen in my life, people do what they want wether there gona get caught or not, what the hell are they trying to do.. .....Zy [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by freedom fighter on December 02, 2000 at 10:38:36 PT dddd, I wondered how can kids learn anything like this.I am angry that there are people who are making money out of this. These people are scumbags! [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by dddd on December 02, 2000 at 09:11:31 PT GREAT SCOTT!! I guess I'm a bit out of touch with what,apparently is routine stuff nowdays.I graduated high school in the early seventies.This was in Seattle,and this type of bizarre intrusive searching was unheard of,,which I guess is no suprize.The shocker for me,is that I was completly unaware that these natzi-esque searches were so routine.And the capper,was the Texas drug sniffer dog company that's milkin' the drug artillery fund!.....I had no idea that this Constitutional exemption was in effect for kids in school! Am I the only one who's shocked?Or am I just ill-informed?....probably a little of both.......dddd [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: