General exploratory or sweep searches are usually impermissible under constitutional standards.

Accordingly, school officials may inspect a student’s bag (purse, backpack, duffel) and clothing for hidden weapons, cigarettes and drugs where they have reason to do so (e.g., a tip that appears to be reliable, observation of materials associated with drug use, bulges in clothing characteristic of weapons). As additional examples, school officials may search a student for weapons where they notice a bulge in a student’s clothing characteristic of knives and the officials received an anonymous tip that a student had a weapon. Security officers may frisk a student and proceed on reasonable suspicion resulting from the stop. Teachers and school officials should be careful to document their preliminary observations, sources of information, tips, investigative steps, or other evidence that leads to reasonable grounds for a search.

Student Tips

In the case of student tips about illegal behavior, school officials must take steps to verify the reliability of the information. They may subject the student informant to extensive questioning regarding the student’s motives, perception or source of knowledge. In addition, they may conduct their own investigation of the accused student’s activities through direct observations, questioning classmates or using other methods, in an effort to corroborate the tip.

Either approach ensures school officials have reasonable grounds to believe a search will produce contraband or evidence of illegal behavior.

Risk Factors – “Profiles”

In some circumstances, a list of risk factors for youth violence or a “profile” of a potentially dangerous student may be used as grounds to stop a student for questioning or to search his or her possessions or person. There is no specific legal rule, such as a Supreme Court decision, addressing the use of risk factor lists or profiles in the school setting. The general rules regarding passenger profiles used in airports provide some directions for the use of a profile in a school.

The Supreme Court has expressly approved the use of “probabilistic” profiles in the airport setting to identify potential drug couriers or terrorists. Generally, individuals may be searched based on their identification through the use of a profile because the profile provides the officers with reasonable suspicion to stop a suspect. Profiles are valid as long as they leave no room for subjective interpretation and are not applied in a discriminatory fashion.

Based on this background, a profile may be an acceptable method of identifying students who may present a risk to the safety of a school and may be stopped for additional questioning. The profile, however, should not stand alone as the only factor justifying a search. School officials might use a profile to stop students to inquire about their activities, but probably need other suspicious behavior or other corroborating information in order to conduct a full search of the student’s person or property. A school official needs reasonable grounds for suspecting a search will reveal contraband, or evidence that a student is violating school

continued on page 6

go to page four