SUBJECT: Searching of Students or Students’ Property;
Interview of Students by Law Enforcement Officials
EFFECTIVE: September, 2002
REVISED: August 19, 2013
PURPOSE: To regulate procedures for the searching of students or students’ property; to regulate procedures for interviews conducted by outside agencies or law enforcement agencies.
REGULATION:
Part 1 – Searches
- Searches of a student’s person or property may only be conducted for serious reasons, when there is probable cause to suspect serious theft, possession of drugs or alcohol, or possession of a weapon or weapons. Probable cause means that there is defensible and tangible evidence to justify a search.
- Searches must only be conducted by authorized school officials or law enforcement officers, following procedures set out in legislation, and designed to protect the students’ dignity, human and legal rights. All care must be taken to observe due care and attention that there is no undue harassment, nor any violation of a student’s right to privacy.
- In any case, other than a bona fide emergency, where a search of a student’s person or property is contemplated, advice and assistance must be sought from the appropriate legal and/or district authority.
Part 2 – Interviews
- Requests for interviews of students by law enforcement officers or agents must be made to the school principal. Teachers must not permit interviews that have not been authorized by the principal.
- When permission to conduct such interviews is granted, the principal must inform parent(s) or guardian(s) immediately of the pending interview, and make every effort to ensure that parent(s) or guardian(s) is/are given the opportunity to be present during the interview. This procedure will not apply where suspected parental abuse or neglect is being investigated.
- When permission to interview students is granted, principals must ensure that such interviews are conducted as privately and unobtrusively as possible.
- Except in the case of a serious crime or in a verifiable emergency, law enforcement officers or agents must not be permitted to arrest students on school premises or remove them from school premises, except in the presence of parent(s) or guardian(s).
- A law enforcement agent in possession of a warrant for the arrest of a student must be permitted to proceed according to dictates of law.