Court Opinion

ID: 9541997
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:30:31.23101+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:05:39.667802
License: Public Domain

LEVINSON, Justice,
concurring.
I am deeply troubled by today’s decision. As the majority acknowledges, “children in school have legitimate expectations of privacy which are protected by article I, section 7 of the Hawai'i Constitution and the fourth amendment to the United States Constitution[.]” Majority opinion at 646, 651-652. In my view, these legitimate expectations of privacy are in no way diminished by virtue of a citizen’s lawfully mandated presence within the public school environment. Moreover, even in school, students retain the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, id. at 649, conducted by “public school officials [who] act as representatives of government,” id. at 646, and, thus, as surrogate police officers when conducting criminal investigations.
On the other hand, the fact that too many of our state and nation’s public schools have become virtual war zones, generating an atmosphere that is antithetical to the education and training of young people, is intolerable and simply cannot be ignored. Although painful and fraught with risk, I must agree that “some easing of the restrictions to which searches by public authorities are ordinarily subject,” New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325, 340, 105 S.Ct. 733, 742, 83 L.Ed.2d 720 (1985), seems to be necessary to ameliorate the crisis.
*446It is only because “the exception to the warrant requirement of article I, section 7 of the Hawaii Constitution, and the relaxation of the probable cause standard to one of reasonable suspicion that we prescribe in the present case, are strictly limited to the school context and the unique balance of interests present therein,” majority opinion at 654 (emphasis added), that I concur in the judgment of the court.