Policy Glen Ridge Board of Education
5770 PUPIL RIGHT OF PRIVACY
The Board
of Education recognizes that a pupil’s right of privacy may not be violated by
unreasonable search and seizure and directs that no pupil be searched without
reason or in an unreasonable manner.
Teaching
staff members are charged with the responsibility of maintaining order and
discipline in the schools and of safeguarding the safety and well-being of the
pupils in their care. In the discharge
of that responsibility, a teaching staff member may search or request the
search of the person or property of a pupil as authorized by this policy, with
or without the pupil's consent, whenever he/she has reasonable grounds to
suspect that the search is required to discover evidence of a violation of law
or of school rules. The extent of the
search will be governed by the seriousness of the alleged infraction, the
pupil’s age, and the pupil’s disciplinary history. Except in exigent circumstances, an intrusive
search of a pupil's person or intimate personal belongings shall be conducted
by a person of the pupil’s gender.
The Board
acknowledges the need for the in-school storage of pupils' possessions and
shall provide storage places, including desks and lockers, for that
purpose. Where locks are provided for
such storage places, pupils may lock them against incursion by other
pupils. In no storage place provided by
the Board shall pupils have such an expectation of privacy as to prevent examination
by a school official. Pupils shall be
notified in writing at the beginning of each school year that inspections of
their lockers, desks, and other storage facilities on school district property
may be conducted. The school principal
or designee is directed to conduct, without further notice, the regular
inspection of such facilities provided to pupils for the storage of property.
Except as
required by exigent circumstances, a request for the search of a pupil or a
pupil's private possessions will be directed to the Building Principal or
designee who shall,
whenever
feasible, first request the freely offered consent of the pupil to the
inspection.
Whenever
possible, a search will be conducted by the Principal in the presence of the
pupil, the pupil's parent(s) or legal guardian(s) or a representative of the
parent(s) or legal guardian(s), and a teaching staff member other than the
Principal. Under no circumstances shall
any pupil be subjected to a strip search or a body cavity search.
A search
prompted by the reasonable belief that the circumstances are exigent and pose
an immediate threat, will be conducted by any teaching staff member with as
much speed and dispatch as may be required to protect persons and property.
The
Principal shall conduct a pupil search on the request of a law enforcement
officer only on presentation of a duly authorized search warrant or on the
voluntary and knowing consent of the pupil or when the Principal has
independent grounds to suspect the presence of an incriminating object.
The
Principal shall be responsible for the prompt recording in writing of each
pupil search, including the reasons for the search; information received that
established the need for the search and the name of the informant, if any; the
persons present when the search was conducted; any substances or objects found;
and the disposition made of them. The
Principal shall be responsible for the custody, control, and disposition of any
illegal or dangerous substance or object taken from a pupil.
N.J.S.A. 18A:36-19.2,
18A:37-6
Adopted: