THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 25, 1997 TAG: 9701250011
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: OPINION
SOURCE: By ROY D. NICHOLS JR.
LENGTH: 88 lines
Recently, media and public attention have been focused on Norfolk public schools' policy of random searches to eliminate weapons and drugs from school property to ensure that all students can learn and teachers can teach in a safe and secure environment.
It's tragic that we live in a violent society where weapons and drugs are readily available to schoolchildren. No lesser authority than the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that ``Drug use and violent crime in the schools have become major social problems.'' Another federal court has acknowledged that ``Unfortunately, violence in the schools is increasingly becoming a way of life.''
To counter this pervasive problem, the School Board must take necessary precautions to protect our students, teachers and staff. In 1991, the School Board approved a policy to allow random searches, including the use of metal detectors. The policy was amplified and clarified in 1994. Unquestionably, the search policy has been effective, reducing the number of guns found from 31 in 1991-92 to only one last year.
Efforts are made to inform students about the policy, not only at the beginning of each school year, but also before any search is conducted. Each September, parents and students are given a brochure concerning student rights, responsibilities and discipline. ``Administrative inspections'' - also known as random searches - are explained in the booklet, which parents are expected to sign, acknowledging that they have reviewed the policy. In all middle and high schools, notices are posted in the hallway when an administrative search is taking place.
Not every student is searched, and it is rare for any student to be searched more than a few times during the course of a school year. During the 1995-96 school year, for example, only 1,100 random searches were conducted in a total student population of approximately 13,600 middle- and high-school students.
The random-search method is intended to be as minimally intrusive on a student's privacy as possible and relies almost entirely on metal detectors.
A student who is randomly selected is first scanned with a hand-held metal detector. Only if the metal detector is activated are the student's personal items searched. The randomness of the searches, to avoid singling out any individual student by school personnel, is ensured by the weekly selection by the deputy superintendent's office of a random number which must be utilized by each school in making search decisions. For example, if the number is five, then every fifth student entering the building, five students at a time, or all students in classrooms with a five in the room number, may be searched.
The school administration has been gratified by the degree of understanding and acceptance of the policy by students themselves. In addition to periodic statements of approval by the students to teachers and school administrators, five out of six students interviewed for a ``Teenspeak'' article in the Dec. 13 Virginian-Pilot believed that the random searches were necessary and supported the school district's policy.
Is the policy legal? While the final determination must be left to the courts, many courts have upheld school search policies which were more intrusive than Norfolk's. Some courts have upheld searching students' personal belongings before using a metal detector. Perhaps the most significant conclusion of the courts is that because students in the schools have a lesser expectation of privacy than members of the general population, a different standard applies to school searches. The U.S. Supreme Court has held specifically that probable cause is not required for school searches. The ``legality of a search of a student should depend simply on the reasonableness, under all the circumstances, of the search.''
The courts in a number of recent cases have upheld the legality of school searches based on metal-detector activation because the intrusion on a student's privacy was minimal and the need for the search - to keep schools safe - was justifiable, thus satisfying the reasonableness standard. The Norfolk policy has been written in an effort to comply with the legal requirements established by the courts, and has a randomness feature that limits security personnel from singling out students.
It is also noteworthy that suspicionless searches are universally required for all individuals entering courthouses or boarding airplanes. Everyone must agree that the safety of schoolchildren is at least as important as that of litigants and airline passengers.
The School Board and administration have an obligation to provide a safe environment for children so they can learn. In addition to random searches, the Norfolk schools use other safety measures, such as assigning security guards with walkie-talkies to all middle and high schools, providing call buttons in classrooms, and monitoring closed-circuit television cameras that are mounted at various locations in high-school hallways.
Like each of these security measures, the purpose of the random-search policy is to maintain safe schools with the least intrusion possible on the fewest number of students. The policy has worked well, and the community should support it. MEMO: Roy Nichols Jr. is superintendent of Norfolk public schools.