Memorandum

To:

Piscataway School District Students, Parents, & Staff

CC:

Piscataway Community

From:

Pamela Hansen, Garrett Fischer, & Ben Burns, District Attorneys

Date:

3/2/16

Re:

Guidelines for Search and Seizure

What Happened
After two 9th grade students were caught smoking in the bathroom, a subsequent search of one of the
students purses revealed cigarettes, drug paraphernalia, marijuana, a large amount of cash, and notes
suggesting that the student was selling drugs. School administration turned the evidence over to
police, the student was charged accordingly, and was expelled. The student though brought a lawsuit
against the school district and the case has made its way all the way to the United States Supreme
Court. What follows is the Courts decision and implications for our practice in Piscataway.

Guiding Implications
The Supreme Court has ruled that school officials have an obligation to protect the safety and wellbeing of all students, and this might necessitate search and seizures, to be balanced with a reasonable
right to privacy of the students.
. . . In carrying out searches and other disciplinary functions pursuant to such policies, school
officials act as representatives of the State, not merely as surrogates for the parents, and they
cannot claim the parents' immunity from the strictures of the Fourth Amendment.
. . . Although this Court may take notice of the difficulty of maintaining discipline in the public
schools today, the situation is not so dire that students in the schools may claim no legitimate
expectations of privacy . . .
. . . [W]e have recognized that maintaining security and order in the schools requires a certain
degree of flexibility in school disciplinary procedures, and we have respected the value of
preserving the informality of the student-teacher relationship.

The Court also weighed in on whether or not a warrant was required to conduct a search.
. . . The warrant requirement, in particular, is unsuited to the school environment: requiring a
teacher to obtain a warrant before searching a child suspected of an infraction of school rules (or
of the criminal law) would unduly interfere with the maintenance of the swift and informal
disciplinary procedures needed in the schools . . . [W]e hold today that school officials need not
obtain a warrant before searching a student who is under their authority.

The standard for whether or not a search can be conducted was defined as Reasonable Grounds.

March 2, 2016
The school setting also requires some modification of the level of suspicion of illicit activity needed
to justify a search. Ordinarily, a searcheven one that may permissibly be carried out without a
warrantmust be based upon "probable cause" to believe that a violation of the law has occurred .
. . However, "probable cause" is not an irreducible requirement of a valid search. The fundamental
command of the Fourth Amendment is that searches and seizures be reasonable, and although
"both the concept of probable cause and the requirement of a warrant bear on the reasonableness
of a search, . . . in certain limited circumstances neither is required."

The most important things to keep in mind are that school district officials has a responsibility to
protect the safety and well-being of all students, and in order to fulfill this, may search students and
their possessions, without a warrant, as long as there is reasonable grounds for the search, and the
search is not excessively intrusive on the rights of the student. Also, always have a witness if you are
going to conduct a search.

CONFIDENTIAL