The Board of Education endeavors to provide an atmosphere on school property and at school functions that is safe and orderly. To achieve this kind of environment, any school official authorized to impose a disciplinary penalty on a student may question a student about an alleged violation of law or the District code of conduct. Students are not entitled to any sort of “Miranda”- type warning before being questioned by school officials, nor are school officials required to contact a student’s parent before questioning the student. However, school officials will tell all students why they are being questioned.
In addition, the Board authorizes the Superintendent of Schools, Building Principals, school nurses and District security officials to conduct searches of students and their belongings if the authorized school official has reasonable suspicion to believe that the search will result in evidence that the student violated the law or the District code of conduct.
An authorized school administrator may conduct a search of a student’s belongings that is minimally intrusive, such as touching the outside of a book bag, without reasonable suspicion, so long as the school official has a legitimate reason for the limited search.
The rules of the code regarding searches of students and their personal belongings do not apply to student lockers, desks, and other school storage places, which are school property. School property may be searched at any time by school officials, without prior notice to students and without their consent.