Ed Law Briefly: It Takes More Than a Hunch to Justifiably Search a Student's Backpack

RCEd Commentary

Background: In a Florida high school, T.S. arrived at school early with her mother for a meeting with Barbara Meshna, her guidance counselor. At the end of the meeting, since T.S. had her bookbag with her, Meshna reminded T.S. that school rules prohibited students from carrying bookbags in the halls during the school day. Therefore, Meshna offered to allow T.S. to leave her bag in her office, and she did so.

On four occasions during the day, T.S. came to Meshna's office asking to retrieve her bookbag. Citing school policy, Meshna denied the requests. Because of the number of times T.S. requested access to her bag, Meshna became suspicious and "started wondering why it was so important to her." As a result, Meshna searched T.S.'s bookbag and found marijuana and drug paraphernalia, which led to criminal charges against T.S.

T.S. argued that the search of her bookbag was a violation of her Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure and that evidence from the illegal search should be excluded. Prosecutors argued that guidance counselor Meshna had reasonable suspicion to search T.S.'s bookbag and the evidence from the search should be admissible.

Issue: Was the search of T.S.'s bookbag an unreasonable search in violation of her Fourth Amendment rights granted by the United States Constitution?

Legal Principles: The U.S. Supreme Court has held that a legally justified search of student property by school officials must be based on "reasonable grounds for suspecting that the search will turn up evidence" that the student violated the law or school rules. To establish "reasonable suspicion" school officials must have specific facts that justify the search. That idea was established in 1985 in a case titled, New Jersey v. TLO.

Outcome: A state appeals court ruled in favor of T.S. According to the court, "the search in this case was based on nothing more than Meshna's unsupported hunch that something wasn't right." At the time of the search, Meshna had no facts to support her feeling that a search of T.S's bag would turn up any illegal activity. The fact that T.S. clearly wanted something from her bag does not constitute reasonable suspicion of illegal activities, since her bag might have contained any number of lawful items.

The court noted that "a ‘gut feeling' or hunch that something is wrong does not constitute a reasonable suspicion to justify the search." Therefore, the court concluded that the search in this case "was improper and the evidence resulting from the search should have been suppressed."

Lessons for Principals and Teachers:

• School officials should not search students or their bookbags, backpacks, or other personal items (such as cellphones) unless they have reasonable suspicion that the students violated the law or school rules. 
• To prevail in court, a search must be reasonable at the start (at inception) and narrowed to likely places the contraband could reside (reasonable in scope). To be reasonable in inception, the search must be based on specific, articulable, and objective facts, not simply on a hunch or gut feeling.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District
T.S. v. State of Florida, 100 So.3d 1289 (November 28, 2012).

U.S. Supreme Court
New Jersey v. TLO, 469 U.S. 325 (January 15, 1985)

^{Note: This information is not intended as legal advice. Federal and other court decisions can differ depending on what region of the country you live in. State laws also weigh in on certain issues. All cases are for educational purposes only, and meant to demonstrate how courts or administrative agencies have acted in specific instances as well as to provide information that can bolster the overall legal literacy of teachers and administrators. Local school attorneys can provide more detail about local law.}