In this growing universe of hate and violence, a school may be one of the safer heaven where a child can escape to. But this place of comfort and refuge is under constant siege by uncivilized teens or students that stash weapons or drugs in their school lockers issued by the school. For protection to such unwanted situations, schools are managing to have sniffer dogs and trained security guards.
The schools provide lockers to their students for their comfort, security and temporary use. Students must utilize these school lockers exclusively to store only their school related materials and authorized personal belongings like outer garments, lunch, grooming aids or footwear. Students should not use these school lockers for any other intention, unless specifically authorized by the school board policy or the school principal. Student is solely responsible for the contents of his/her school lockers and must not share his/her school lockers with any other student, nor declare the combinations of school lockers to any other student, unless authorized by the public school principal.
All the school lockers provided to the students are the property of the school district. At no time does the school relinquish its exclusive control of its school lockers. The public school principal shall have custody of all combinations to all school lockers or locks. Students are restricted to place locks on any locker without the advance approval by the public school principal.
Various searches of school locker and its contents have a positive effect on resisting violations of the school regulations and rules, assure proper maintenance of school properties, and maintain greater security and safety for students and personnel. The principal of the public school has all the authorities to search any locker and locker contents at any point of time, without notice, and without guardianship/parental or student consent. The public school principal should not be obligated, but may request the assistance of a law enforcement officer to conduct a locker search. The public school principal should supervise the search. In the case of a locker search, the public school principal should respect the privacy rights of the students regarding any belongings discovered which are legal or not against the school rules and policy.
While conducting locker searches, the principal of the school can seize any unauthorized or illegal items, items in violation of board rules or policy, or any other items determined by the principal to be a potential threat to the security or safety of others. Such items include, but are not limited to the following: flammable material, firearms, dangerous weapons, explosives, illegal controlled substances or controlled substance analogues or other poisons, contraband, intoxicants and stolen property. Law enforcement officials should be notified urgently upon seizure of such items, or seizure of items which schools are needed to report to law enforcement agencies under the Statewide School Safety Information Policy. Any belongings seized by the public school principal should be removed from the school locker and held by the school officials for proof in disciplinary proceedings or/and turned over to the law enforcement officials. The guardian/parent of a minor student, or a student aged 18 years or older, should be notified by the public school principal of items removed from the school locker.
A copy of the local school board policy regarding locker searches should be given annually to each student and guardian/parent of the student assigned a school locker.
