CO: School search of serial offender under firearms “safety plan” was reasonable

The juvenile here was searched for weapons three days into his sophomore year. He was known to bring firearms to school, and his family and the school developed a “safety plan” to permit searches, which happened most of the freshman year. It was three days into the sophomore year before he was finally searched, and a gun was found. He was sent to juvenile court. The search was reasonable under T.L.O. and not just based on his criminal history. People in Interest of J.G., 2024 CO 16, 2024 Colo. LEXIS 240 (Mar. 25, 2024):

¶1 Early in 2019, John F. Kennedy High School (“Kennedy”) developed a safety plan to permit ninth-grader J.G. to continue attending school after he committed several firearm-related offenses. The safety plan required J.G. to submit to daily searches for weapons, and he complied with those searches through the end of that school year. When J.G. returned to Kennedy for his tenth-grade year, however, he was not searched on the first two days that he attended school. On his third day, school administrators searched J.G. and discovered a loaded handgun in his backpack. He was immediately arrested by a school resource officer and charged with weapons-related offenses.

¶2 In juvenile court, J.G. moved to suppress evidence of the handgun. He argued that the search violated his Fourth Amendment rights because it was nonconsensual and unsupported by reasonable suspicion, as the safety plan was no longer in effect at the time of the search. The court denied the motion, finding that the safety plan, with its search requirement, remained in place when the handgun was found. A division of the court of appeals affirmed the juvenile court’s denial of the suppression motion, holding that because the search requirement in the safety plan “substantially diminished” J.G.’s expectation of privacy in his person and effects, the search was reasonable. People in Int. of J.G., 2022 COA 64, ¶ 4, 517 P.3d 1267, 1271.

¶3 We affirm. A search of a student conducted on school grounds in accordance with an individualized, weapons-related safety plan is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment.

. . .

¶31 J.G. also argues that a search cannot be justified solely by prior criminal conduct, so the safety plan, which was based on his weapons-related adjudications, could not form the basis for reasonable suspicion. We agree that past criminal conduct alone does not create reasonable suspicion, but J.G.’s juvenile adjudications were not the sole basis for the safety plan that justified the search. According to the Colorado School Safety Resource Center, the threat assessment process requires a multi-disciplinary team to gather and consider a broad swath of information including, for example, the student’s family life, relationships, and mental health history. Colo. Sch. Safety Res. Ctr., Essentials ofSchool Threat Assessment: Preventing Targeted School Violence 14-22 (June 2021), https://cdpsdocs.state.co.us/safeschools/Resources/CSSRC_Resource_Guides/ TAResourceGuide2021.pdf [https://perma.cc/2TJG-JLJM].

¶32 J.G.’s safety plan was informed by input from school personnel, J.G. himself, his mother, and his guardian ad litem. It was not a flat application of restrictions based only on J.G.’s criminal history.