WA: Exigency under school search exception is different

Defendant juvenile didn’t come home the night before, and he was reported as a runaway. The school resource police officer found him and another asleep in a car on the high school parking lot. A knife was seen in the back seat, and the school had a no tolerance police for weapons on school grounds. The owner of the car also consented to a search of the car. Defendant’s claim of a need for exigent circumstances under T.L.O. is different than in general. State v. Brown, 158 Wn. App. 49, 240 P.3d 1175 (2010):

An emergency under the school search exception is not the same as the exigent circumstances exception to the general requirement for a warrant. See Slattery, 56 Wn. App. at 823 (listing exceptions separately). An exigency under the school search exception is any threat to the order and discipline of a school. McKinnon, 88 Wn.2d at 81. An exigent circumstance under the exigent circumstances exception, however, is a true emergency. State v. Hinshaw, 149 Wn. App. 747, 754, 205 P.3d 178 (2009). It requires swift action to prevent danger to life, a suspect’s imminent escape, or destruction of evidence. Id.

Repeated drug sales as probable cause to search a house also shows a lack of staleness. Wagner v. State, CR10-372 (Ark. October 21, 2010).*

Swabbing a cheek to procure a DNA sample constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment and Wash. Const. art. I, § 7, and a search warrant is required. Assertions of an ASA during a hearing are not evidence, and the order for the DNA sample was not issued with probable cause. State v. Garcia-Salgado, 170 Wn. 2d 176, 240 P.3d 153 (2010).*

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