Cal.1st: Unverified report student shot another on a school bus the day before justified a locker search that found a sawed-off shotgun

The search of the juvenile’s school locker was validly based on an unverified report that he shot somebody on a school bus the day before. It was reasonable for the school officials to act on that information. A sawed-off shotgun was found in his locker. In re J.D., 225 Cal. App. 4th 709 (1st Dist. April 15, 2014):

Recent events have demonstrated the increased concern school officials must have in the daily operation of public schools. Sites such as Columbine, Sandy Hook Elementary, and Virginia Tech have been discussed in our national media not because of their educational achievements, but because of the acute degree of violence visited on these and other campuses—hostility often predicated on killings with firearms. During the 2009–2010 school year, 33 students, staff, and others died in a school-associated violent event. In 2009, 8 percent of students in grades nine through twelve reported being threatened or injured with a weapon on school property at least one time. According to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, a division of the Center for Disease Control (CDC), in 2010, there were 828,000 nonfatal victimizations at school among students 12 through 18 years of age. In 2011, 5.9 percent of the students in grades nine through 12 did not attend school within 30 days of the CDC survey because they felt the school, or their way to or from school, was unsafe. Also, 7.4 percent of the same group reported being threatened or injured with a weapon on school property one or more times in the past 12 months before the survey. We must be cognizant of this alarming reality as we approach our role in assessing appropriate responses by school administrators to campus safety issues.

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In our case, the administration and its security staff at Richmond High School faced a report from an identified student who overheard that, the previous day, one of the school’s students, T.H., shot another person on a bus after school. The student reportee demonstrated concern over the incident and was interviewed by CSO Sanders and also CSO Johnson. This information triggered two responsible initiatives by the school security officers. The first was to determine if T.H. was on the school property with a weapon. The second was to inspect lockers that could be used by T.H. to conceal such an item. Neither step by the school would be considered inappropriate or unreasonable. Each was narrow and focused, and based on the identity of T.H. and an area of the school he was known to frequent.

The belief that T.H. may have stored contraband in another person’s locker, in the context of the special needs doctrine, does not serve to preclude the action of school security. Even if another student validly had the assigned use of a particular locker at the school, that fact did not make the official behavior here suspecting an alleged shooter also had access to the same lockers unreasonable. Privacy concerns needed to be balanced against the official need to address school safety. The principles developed in T.L.O., Acton, and Board of Education of Independent School District No. 92 of Pottawatomie County v. Earls (2002) 536 U.S. 822 [153 L. Ed. 2d 735, 122 S. Ct. 2559] (Earls), as well as Skinner and Von Raab, are authoritative precedent here because they also involve a proactive policy based on government obligations aimed at protecting students, travelers, and our national borders, not hindsight reflection.