As New Jersey’s statewide school cellphone ban takes effect this school year, questions about student privacy and school authority are becoming more prominent concerning bag searches for phones and other items.
Students retain constitutional protections against unreasonable searches, but school officials may search a student’s belongings if they have reasonable suspicion that school rules or laws have been violated.
The legal standard for student searches comes from the 1985 U.S. Supreme Court case New Jersey v. T.L.O., which determined that school officials need reasonable suspicion rather than probable cause to search student property.
Probable cause means there is enough evidence to reasonably believe a crime has been committed or that evidence of a crime will be found. Reasonable suspicion is a lower standard. It means there are specific facts or circumstances that give an official reason to believe a student may have violated a school rule or the law.
Del Val’s Supervisor of Security, Safety and Student Conduct, Ariel Gilbert, said students should understand that schools must balance privacy rights with school safety.
“Using that reasonable suspicion, if there are banned substances, weapons or things like that, it gives the authority of the administrator to go into a bag, backpack or pockets to identify if there’s a threat in the building,” Gilbert said.
Students always have a right to refuse a search, however school officials can still search the bag under certain circumstances. Refusing a search does not necessarily prevent it from happening. If there is reasonable suspicion, school officials may still be permitted to search a student’s bag.
For example, if a teacher sees a student constantly reaching towards their bag, looking into it or even sees a phone, that gives the teacher responsible suspicion and could trigger a search of the student’s bag.
With New Jersey’s school cellphone ban now taking effect, some students and parents have raised questions about how this policy will be enforced.
“The intent of it is not to open backpacks every day and look for cell phones — that would take hours,” Gilbert said. “The expectation is that it should be in your locker. If it’s not in your locker, you take a risk of a consequence.”
Gilbert assures that the new change appears more intimidating and strict than it actually is.
“I think the students think that it’s gonna be like this huge drastic change where it’s gonna be like policing over the students, but once students sort of get their routine down, I think that they’re going to realize that there really isn’t too much of a difference” Gilbert said.
The cellphone ban has now begun to take effect, bringing new expectations for students regarding cellphone use and school policies concerning bag searches. Del Val students can review the policies and regulations through the online student handbook.
