Legal opinions on school vehicle search

S

sumabich

Moderator
Dang another article to get my shorts in a wad! Our local paper had a short article written by a student about a neigboring counties school policy of searching student vehicles. They will have a secretary pick a number from 1-9. Any student who has a vehicle with that number in their parking sticker will have their vehicle searched. The student went on to report matter of fact that "it's being done for our safety"! Being a child of the 60's and a card carrying SOB to boot I had to write a letter to the editor. I claimed that this was a violation of our constitutional rights and unreasonable search and seizure. I also lamented the lack of Constitutional education on the part of the students and stated that if it had happened during my time a revolt would have followed. Am I right? Or is there a new law or executive bubba order I'm not familiar with? I'd appreciate your thoughts. All I know is that I have a 17 year old with a car and if they try to search her vehicle without probable cause and a search warrent, I'm calling a lawyer! Is this happening elsewhere, and are people blindly letting it happen?
 
Greetings,

You may find that there is a Notice in the parking lot stating that anyone who parks there "consents" to a search of their vehicle by virtue of its being parked on school property. This is probably legal. It is routinely done in prisons and military bases.

Regards,

Ledbetter
 
Here in Louisiana you cannot own a car until 18. So who actually owns the car are usually the parents. If the school authority types want to search MY car, that my 16-year-old daughter used to drive to school, they had better ask ME. They will be told no and I will pick my car up immediately if they don’t like it. The car is considered an extension of your home here in Louisiana and no one is searching my home or car without probable cause or a search warrant.
Gotta make a stand for our rights durn it!
 
I'll bet that the application for the school-parking sticker includes permission for searches. In addition, I can tell you that schools are different; for example, locker searches in schools can be conducted without individual consent (remember, the locker belongs to the school district, not to the student).

Obviously, none of this conforms to the "spirit" of the Constitution; however, the courts, the politicians, and the bureaucrats have found these searches to be legal, theoretically for the greater good "of the children".

Another fine example of our sacred rights being progressively undermined. We should all remember the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence: "Whenever any form of government is destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute new government."
 
I don't give a DAMN about "signs", paragraphs on some "agreemenet", or anything else. If you're gonna search my (or my kid's) car, two things better be true: 1) you're a cop, and 2) you have a warrant.

Period.

Kids are FORCED to be in school. They're essentially trapped there. Captive audience. Also, you should ask your kids if they watch 30 minutes of "news" on TeeVee in their school? I was just made aware of a program whereby ADVERTISERS pipe in this "news", sprinkled liberally with COMMERCIALS, to that same captive audience. (Just teaching them to be good little consumer sheeple...)



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"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." - H.L. Mencken
 
I have a question for you.. What state do you live in? To reply to your questions...If school officials are executing the searches then the your Constitutional rights are out the window since Aourth Ammendment only applies to the government searching. Remember the Constitution only relates to the government and the people, not the people and the people. That is why we have Penal Codes, Health Codes and Ordinances and the such. The Fourth Ammendment does not give individuals the absolute right to privacy; neither does it prohibit all searches. It limits only those searches conducted by the government that are considered unreasonable by the courts. If no consent was given to the person searching your car then you can make a claim in the civil court system. Make sure you haven't inadvertantly given consent by getting that parking sticker or parking on the grounds having there be a sign given consent to search if parked. I would suggest you get a lawyer or have your daughter park off campus and take a short walk to school.
 
Public schools are run by the government. So why shouldn't the Fourth apply?

If the Fourth ammendment does not restrict school officials and searches of personal property (not lockers and other school property), then what will stop them from performing strip searches and such whenever or wherever (outside of school, etc.) they wish?

Most high school students who drive to school don't own their vehicles anyway, their parents do. Even if they "saved their own money" and bought one, the vehicles are usually titled in their parents names because they are under often under 18. So the vehicles are legally property of the parents. If a school suspected a student of wrongdoing and thought a search might be justified, couldn't the officials simply get consent from the parents? Or perhaps the parents could search the vehicle themselves. Then again, they're probably not compentent enough while the government village is.
 
The Fourth will only apply if a person searching the trunk is acting under the authority of the law or color of the law (which is a LEO, or a magistrate or judge) If a citizen wants to search your vehicle he has to get consent from you otherwise he is committing a burglary of a vehicle (which is a felony) and should suffer the consequences in civil trial or be placed under arrest. Either way they should not be able to search the trunk without probable cause since it is locked and cannot be accessible from the passenger compartment.

I am not sure about the minors driving the cars and the legal owners being the parents but I would assume that they are the person driving the vehicle and have been entrusted with the vehicle and have standing under that vehicle. For instance, if I loan my car to my brother and he gets pulled over, he can give consent to search the car because he has standing in the car and has legal and lawful control of the car. The cops do not have to search me down to get consent from me to search the vehicle he is entrusted with. I would assume it is the same with minors driving the vehicles.

Strip searches are a very different from vehicle searches. They are more intrusive and the person would have to be under arrest or they would have to have a warrant. There is no way a citizen can strip search another citizen without consent. Consent being the big word and the only way another person could possibly search your person. If you give consent then your rights are out the window.
 
This kind of thing is the first in MANY steps to make children believe the have NO right to privacy.

Implied consent, i.e. sign saying "if you park here you consent to having your car searched", or some kind of crap like that is TOTAL BS!

Police State here wer are!
Where are your papers?

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Dead [Black Ops]
 
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