5145.12 - Search and Seizure

The San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools (SBCSS) is committed to maintaining an environment for students and staff which is safe and conducive to learning and working. SBCSS recognizes that incidents may occur where the health, safety and welfare of students and staff are jeopardized and which necessitate the search and seizure of students, their property, or possessions in their desks (as applicable) by school officials.

SBCSS authorizes school officials to conduct searches when there are reasonable grounds or suspicion that the search will uncover evidence that the student is violating the law or the rules of SBCSS or the school. SBCSS encourages that discretion, good judgment and common sense be exercised in all cases of search and seizure. Searches shall be made in the presence of at least one other SBCSS employee (of the same gender as the student being searched, if possible). Employees will not conduct strip searches or body cavity searches. When appropriate, staff may use a metal detector (whether a wand or stand-alone device) when searching an individual for weapons.

The parent/guardian of the student being searched shall be notified by the Principal/Designee as soon after the search as possible.

In determining whether reasonable cause for a search exists, school officials shall consider:

1. The student’s age and previous behavior patterns.

2. The prevalence and seriousness in the school of the problem to which the search was directed.

3. The urgency requiring the search without delay.

4. The substantive value and reliability of the information used as a justification for the search.

5. The location of the student at the time of the incident which gave rise to reasonable suspicion.

Searches shall be conducted in a manner that minimizes the degree of intrusiveness and limited in the scope to items prohibited by school rules (e.g., illegal drugs, alcoholic beverages, firearms, pyrotechnics, weapons and tobacco).

Random Search for Weapons

SBCSS finds that the growing presence of weapons in the schools threatens the school’s ability to provide a safe and orderly learning environment to which our students and staff are entitled. SBCSS also finds that random metal detector searches offer a reasonable means to keep weapons out of the schools and mitigate the fears of students and staff. Metal detectors searches may, at the discretion of the Principal/Designee, and according to the approved safety plan, be conducted in a random fashion which excludes individual discretion as to who will be searched.

Use of Contraband Detection Dogs

SBCSS places a high priority on school safety for students and staff. A part of school safety is keeping schools free from the presence of illegal or unsafe items which include: illegal drugs, alcoholic beverages, firearms, pyrotechnics, weapons and tobacco. In an effort to keep the schools free of drugs and dangerous contraband, SBCSS may use specially trained nonaggressive dogs to sniff out and alert staff to the presence of items or substances prohibited by law or the policies and regulations of SBCSS

Student vehicles, desks and other unattended objects in public areas under the control of SBCSS are subject to suspicionless, periodic, random, unannounced inspections by trained detection canines which sniff the exterior surface areas for prohibited items which may be stored within. Any person who parks a vehicle on property under the control of SBCSS has a diminished expectation of privacy. By entering any parking lot under the control of SBCSS, any person driving a vehicle is deemed to consent to a search of the vehicle, including all compartments and contents, at any time by school officials or law enforcement personnel for any reason whatsoever.

Approved May 24, 1994
Revised October 7, 1994
Revised November 8, 1994
Revised November 4, 2014