Locker searches on school grounds are a touchy subject. In an environment where students likely don’t have the same level of privacy they have at home or elsewhere, the locker represents their sacred space. However, using a locker search to make sure that dangerous and illicit items or materials aren’t on campus is an important school safety tool that administrators possess.
The best way to make sure that locker searches remain a useful tool, and don’t cause issues in and of themselves, is to have a clear and definitive set of written guidelines surrounding them. It’s important to note that these guidelines are intended to shape the way schools handle locker searches generally, and not in the case of a specific and individual suspicion. These searches are intended to deter students from bringing and/or keeping illicit materials on school grounds, as well as to respond to serious security issues.
Regardless of what the specifics of your locker search policy says, make sure that all critical decision-makers (school board, principal, superintendent or president) approve the plan. Additionally, it is essential that your larger community be made aware through a letter or other communication the reasons your school is instituting a locker search policy. That communication should underscore the reality, which is that any evidence of a crime committed found during a locker search will be turned over to the local authorities.
Once we’ve accomplished those starting points, it is important to establish who is involved with deciding what lockers to search, actually searching the lockers, and taking follow-up steps after the lockers are searched. If your school has on-site security of some kind, whether outside officers or an SRO, they may be charged with this responsibility. No matter who ends up performing the search, the lockers searched should be chosen in a way that minimizes the role of the school from choosing them. This might mean all lockers are searched, or that a randomly representative sample of them is searched. Once again, here we are ensuring that the locker search program is focused on mitigating the larger security issue your school identified, instead of scrutinizing specific individuals.
The individuals tasked with searching lockers must do so in a way that minimizes the intrusiveness as much as possible. They should only be looking for items that clearly do not belong on school property or in a locker, and take extreme caution to not damage any personal possessions. While everyone is sensitive to their personal thoughts, teenagers are often particularly so, and thus searchers need to be careful not to read personal journal/diary entries. The searchers also need to know what illicit material looks like (drugs, drug paraphernalia, weapons) as well as what to do if they discover any of these materials. If they find a firearm, do they know the proper procedures to follow?
Finally, let’s remember once again what the goals of any acceptable locker search program are. The overriding and guiding principles of the program must be to dissuade students from bringing and keeping prohibited materials on campus, NOT to catch or prosecute students who may be in violation of school rules. This is an important distinction. The goal is to create an environment where all students are aware that there will be consequences if caught with contraband, as opposed to one where students feel like their school is out to get them specifically. These guidelines are intended to support your school community in the event that there are large-scale security and discipline problems, not one or two particular individuals.
