5771 - SEARCH AND SEIZURE
The School Board recognizes its obligation to balance the privacy rights of its students with the School Corporation's responsibility to provide students, faculty, and authorized visitors with a safe, hygienic, and alcohol/drug-free learning environment.
In balancing these competing interests, the Board directs the Superintendent to utilize the following principles:
- School Property
School facilities such as lockers and desks are school property provided for student use, subject to the right of the Superintendent to enter the facility as needed and inspect all items in the facility searched. Students shall not have an expectation of privacy in any facility provided by the school and shall not be permitted to deny entry to a Corporation administrator by the use of a lock or other device. - Student's Person and Possessions
Prior to a search of a student's person and personal items in the student's immediate possession, consent of the student shall be sought by an administrator. If the student does not consent, such a search shall be permitted based only upon the administrator's individualized reasonable suspicion to believe that the search shall produce evidence of a violation of a law, school rule, or a condition that endangers the safety or health of the student or others. Searches of the person of a student shall be conducted and witnessed by a person of the same gender as the student and shall be conducted in a private place. The student shall be given the option of selecting the witness from the faculty members on the school premises at the time of the search. A searched student's parent or guardian shall be notified of the search within twenty-four (24) hours if possible.
Searches, pursuant to this policy, also shall be permitted in all situations in which the student is under the jurisdiction of the Board as defined by I.C. 20-33-8-14.
Permission for a student to bring a vehicle on school property shall be conditioned upon consent for the search of the vehicle and all containers inside the vehicle by a school administrator with reasonable suspicion to believe the search shall produce evidence of a violation of law, a school rule, or a condition that endangers the safety or health of the student driver or others. The student shall have no expectation of privacy in any vehicle or in the contents of any vehicle operated or parked on school property.
If a Corporation student has died, transferred, dropped out, or otherwise withdrawn from enrollment in the Corporation, the Corporation shall not remove the student’s property without first providing the parents an opportunity to collect the property. The term “student property” refers to property belonging to a student that the student has stored in a locker, desk, or personal cubby that is located on school property and has been assigned to the student for the student's use. Provided, however, that this requirement does not restrict or otherwise limit the authority of a law enforcement agency to search an area containing student property or seize student property pursuant to a law enforcement investigation.
The Superintendent may request the assistance of a law enforcement agency in implementing any aspect of this policy. Where law enforcement officers participate in a search on school property or at a school activity pursuant to a request from the Superintendent, the search shall be conducted by the law enforcement officers in accordance with the legal standards applicable to law enforcement officers. - Breath Test Instruments
Administrators are authorized to arrange for the use of breath-test instruments for the purpose of determining if a student has consumed an alcoholic beverage. It is not necessary for the test to determine blood-alcohol level, since the Board has established a zero tolerance for alcohol use. - Metal Detectors
To address the Corporation’s duty to maintain a safe learning environment free of the potential presence of weapons, school officials, school resource officers and other school personnel trained in the usage of metal detectors are authorized to use metal detectors, either hand-held wands or walk through devices, for the purpose of determining if a person is in possession of weapons or other dangerous metal objects and/or other unauthorized objects (e.g., vape pens and other prohibited equipment/devices). When the school administration has a reasonable suspicion to believe weapons or other dangerous metal objects and/or other unauthorized objects (e.g., vape pens and other prohibited equipment/devices) are in the possession of an identified person, a search of the identified person and/or of their possessions shall be conducted in accordance with the requirements of this policy’s provisions for searching a Student’s Person or Possessions (B. above) and AG 7440A - Metal Detector Search Procedures. - Use of Dogs
The Board authorizes the use of specially-trained dogs to detect the presence of drugs or devices such as bombs on school property under the conditions established in the Superintendent's administrative guidelines.
Anything found in the course of a search pursuant to this policy that constitutes evidence of a violation of a law or a school rule or that endangers the safety or health of any person shall be seized and utilized as evidence if appropriate. Seized items of value shall be returned to the owner if the items may be lawfully possessed by the owner. Seized items of no value and seized items that may not lawfully be possessed by the owner shall be destroyed.
The Superintendent or Principal, as appropriate, shall promptly record in writing the following information for each search conducted pursuant to this policy:
the information upon which the search was based
the date, time, location, students or places searched, and persons present
a description of each item seized and its disposition
the date and time of notice to the parent or guardian in the case of a search of the student's person
The Superintendent shall prepare administrative guidelines to implement this policy.
Revised 10/21/17
Revised 8/16/18
Revised 12/20/18
Revised 3/19/24
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