This is the second article in a series on students’ rights. You can find the first one here.
American citizens have rights protected by the Constitution and its 27 amendments, but as high school students, we yield many of these rights as soon as we step foot on campus property. Despite the potential for blurred lines between what may or may not be allowed at a school, Chamblee’s rules are rather black and white.
Campus searches are no different, and the basic idea of a school search and its procedure is as follows: there is an illicit item or object found on school campus, someone in authority is notified, and action is taken to locate and remove the object.
However, the specific steps taken to initiate such a search, and the rights of those involved, may be more complex than you think. As described by the DeKalb County Student Code of Conduct, searches are implemented to “maintain order and discipline in the schools, and to protect the safety and welfare of students.”
Items subject to search range from personal effects, such as a backpacks, purses, and vehicles, to all school-owned property, such as lockers, desks, and tables. Additionally, pat-down searches deemed warranted under “reasonable grounds” can be administered by a school official of the same sex, and have been used at our school.
“There are two main types of searches,” said Chamblee School Resource Officer (SRO) Seay. “An administrator search and an officer search are different, and administrators actually have much more power than an officer at the school. They are the ones that that interact most with the kids, and oftentimes, students will notify them of a situation where a search could be involved.”
Within these two categories, Seay described two main possible motives: reasonable suspicion of drugs or weapons on campus.
“A drug search would usually have to be initiated by an administrator because most of the time [SROs] won’t know about the substance. There is really one main reason [when] an SRO is involved, and that reason is if we are looking for weapons,” said Seay.
Students age 17 and above can legally be charged with felonies as adults, and are subject to progressions like those of any arrested adult. The seizing of drugs requires time to conduct more extensive probe than that of a weapon; however, both contribute to the majority of school searches.
“In the event that a student is apprehended with an illicit substance, then we will let that student know that if they are a suspect, then they will be read their rights. But if they are a witness, then we will let them know that we just want to know what they know. We would then conduct a complete investigation,” said Seay.
Students who have been searched at Chamblee seem to understand that these search policies are in place for a reason, and that their consequences are evident of their actions, yet question some aspects of the implementation.
“Knowing the system and rules they have to follow and understanding their point of view, I feel they treated the situation fairly and treated me with the necessary precautions,” said a Chamblee student who wished to remain anonymous. “They did not tell me any rules or rights I had prior to the search, but the one action I was told, is that if I confessed to having the prohibited school item, I would face ‘less consequences.’ Besides that, nothing else.”
This student was searched amid suspicion of vape possession and usage on school grounds. They had their belongings searched and underwent a thorough pat-down search conducted by an administrator. Despite these actions, a message of a mutual respect remained.
“I personally think the school administration did their job and were simply following their written protocol and had no means of bias,” the student said. “Was the situation blown out of context? In my opinion, yes, but due to such accusations that were made, I can understand the ramifications of their needed actions as reasonable and just.”
A shared experience of another student accused of vape usage yielded similar conclusions, but also raised concerns over how extensive these administrative searches actually are.
“It was a pretty thorough process. I had a binder and they went through pretty much every page, even loose leaf paper. I had textbooks and they went through like every page of [those] too. I guess they wanted to find the device, which makes sense in their opinion, but still it seemed a little excessive,” said this student, who will also remain anonymous.
Nevertheless, DeKalb County and its school officials possess the power to levy consequences to those found in violation of the code of conduct, state law, or federal law, and searches are merely a method through which these violations are exposed.
“If you are a student at that school, and an administrator feels that they have enough suspicion to warrant a search, then they can do the search, or their designee [can], which may be the campus supervisor,” said Seay. “If the search finds something illegal, then they would call an SRO, who at that point is the authority and will act based on the situation.”
