Court Opinion

ID: 9754525
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 20:03:03.053798+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:54.362825
License: Public Domain

KELLY, Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the majority’s opinion. I write separately to emphasize the limited scope of this decision. In the instant case, we found that a search of an individual student’s school locker to determine whether the locker contains cigarettes or other unpermitted materials violated the student’s privilege against unreasonable searches and seizures when the school official conducting the search did not have a reasonable and articulable basis to believe that the search *299would uncover evidence that the law or the rules of the school were violated or being violated.1
The majority finds that the student had a reasonable expectation of privacy with regard to the contents of his school locker. The majority relies upon the similarity between the items subjected to a search in New Jersey v. TLO, 469 U.S. 325, 105 S.Ct. 733, 83 L.Ed.2d 720 (1985), and those subjected to a search in the instant case. The majority also relies upon our holding in Commonwealth v. Gabrielle, 269 Pa.Super. 338, 409 A.2d 1173 (1979), wherein we held that in certain circumstances an employee may have a legitimate expectation of privacy with respect to the contents of a locker provided at his workplace.
In the instant case, the school provided the student with a locker in which the student was permitted to store personal property. The record does not indicate that the school made any special restrictions with regard to the nature of the items which could be stored in the locker. The school did not notify students that use of the lockers would be subject to random or periodic inspection or search. The school did not follow a uniform policy or consistent practice regarding locker searches. Indeed, the record indicated that other students in similar circumstances were not subjected to locker searches. Consequently, I agree that the student in the instant case had a reasonable expectation of privacy with regard to the contents of his locker.2
In People v. Overton, 24 N.Y.2d 522, 301 N.Y.S.2d 479, 249 N.E.2d 366 (1983), a New York court stated, “For the *300four years of high school, the school locker is home away from home. In it the student stores the kind of personal 'effects’ protected by the Fourth Amendment.” This is true. Consequently, when a student is given an unrestricted right to place personal items in a school locker, the privacy interest in the items can reasonably be expected to extend Fourth Amendment protections to the locker in which they are placed.
I emphasize that although students may in fact store a variety of personal items in their lockers, they do so by license and not by right. If the student is notified that he or she is provided with a locker which is subject to inspection or search, there would be no reasonable expectation of privacy. A student would then have the choice of using the locker subject to its conditions, or not using it. I find no constitutional entitlement to a private school locker. Hence, I would find no prohibition to prevent the adoption of reasonable restrictions on the use of school lockers.
In Commonwealth v. Dingfelt, 227 Pa.Super. 380, 323 A.2d 145 (1974), this Court stated: •
School officials have a great responsibility to see that the vital process of education can take place in an environment conducive to learning____certainly the peddling or possession of drugs by a student within the confines of the school is not conducive to a secondary school environment.
227 Pa.Superior Ct. at 383, 323 A.2d at 147. It is a sad fact of modern society that drugs and violence have found a foothold in our schools and-threaten the vital educational process. See Lloyd D. Johnston, et al., Student Drug Use, Attitudes and Beliefs: National Trends 1975-1982. National Institute on Drug Abuse, (U.S. Gov. Printing Office, Rockville, Md. 1982);3 The Scope of Crime and Violence in *301Schools and on Proposed Initiatives to Combat Juvenile Crime in the Schools, Senate Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Juvenile Justice, 98th Cong., 2d Sess. 98-488 (January 25,1984).4
In light of this harsh reality, and in view of the state’s compelling interest in educating its youth in an environment conducive to learning, schools may be expected to take reasonable measures to eliminate the disruptive influence of drugs and violence. We have not held and do not suggest that the school may not restrict the school locker privilege in such a way as to eliminate a student’s reasonable expectation of privacy.
*302In State v. Stein, 203 Kan. 638, 456 P.2d 1 (1969), the Kansas Supreme Court stated:
Although a student may have control of his locker as against fellow students, his possession is not exclusive against the school and its officials. A school does not supply its students with lockers for illicit use in harboring pilfered property or harmful substances. We deem it a proper function of school authorities to inspect lockers under their control and to prevent their use in illicit ways or for illegal purposes.
456 P.2d at 3. In State v. Engerud, 94 N.J. 331, 463 A.2d 934 (1983), the New Jersey Supreme Court held that “[H]ad the school carried out a policy of regularly inspecting students’ lockers, an expectation of privacy may not have arisen.” 463 A.2d at 943. In Zamora v. Pomeroy, 639 F.2d 662 (10th Cir.1981), the Court of Appeals stated that “Inasmuch as the school had assumed joint control of the locker it cannot be successfully maintained that the school did not have a right to inspect it.” 639 F.2d at 670.
However, in order for a school to make the transition from a practice of allowing students to maintain the privacy in their lockers to a practice of regular or periodic inspection or search, ample notice must be given of any such limitations. The importance of notice to the students of any change in the policy regarding the privacy of school lockers cannot be overstated. Because no such notice was given in the instant case, the search was unconstitutional and the evidence must be suppressed.

. I note that it is not necessary that the student whose locker is to be searched be the individual suspected of a violation of a law or school rule. "The critical element in a reasonable search is not that the owner is suspected of a crime but that there is reasonable cause to believe that the specific 'things’ to be searched for and seized are located on property to which entry is sought.” Zurcher v. Stanford Dailey, 436 U.S. 547, 98 S.Ct. 1970, 56 L.Ed.2d 525 (1978).

. I note that in Gabrielle, this Court found that: the employee had been permitted to use the locker for storage of personal items; the locker was not government property; and the employer had not manifested an intent to regulate the use of the lockers by promulgating regulations permitting search of the locker without the employee’s consent. 269 Pa.Superior Ct. at 344, 409 A.2d at 1176.

. This 1982 report revealed the following grim facts. Nearly two-thirds of all seniors (64%) report illicit drug use at some time during their lives. More than four of every ten seniors (41%) report using an illicit drug other than marijuana. Seventy percent of all high school seniors reported drinking alcohol in the past month, ninety-three percent report having drunk alcohol at some time. Seventy percent *301reported smoking cigarettes at some time, thirty percent reported smoking cigarettes in the past month.

. Testimony before Senator Arlen Specter’s subcommittee disclosed the following. The most comprehensive study of crime and violence in America’s secondary schools was completed in 1978 By the National Institute for Education in response to a Congressional mandate. The NIE reported that:
• Each month: 282,000 students were physically attacked in America’s secondary schools; 112,000 were robbed through force, weapons, or threats; and 2,400,000 students had personal property stolen.
• Each month: 6,000 teachers were robbed in America’s secondary schools; 1,000 were injured in assaults seriously enough to require medical attention; 125,000 teachers were threatened with physical harm; and 125,000 teachers reported encountering at least one situation where they were afraid to confront misbehaving students.
• Each month: 2,400 acts of arson; 23,000 thefts of school property; 24.000 incidents of vandalism; and 42,000 cases of damage to school property are reported in America’s secondary schools.
• An average of 21% of all secondary students stated they avoided restrooms and were afraid of being hurt or bothered at school; 800.000 reported staying home from school because they were afraid.
• Secondary students reported beer, wine, and marijuana were widely available in their schools. Almost half of them stated that marijuana was easy to get and 37% made the same comment concerning alcohol.
A major 1983 study of school violence by Jackson Toby, Director of Rutgers University’s Institute for Criminological Research, concluded that the NIE data had probably understated the actual instances of school violence at the time the study was conducted. (“Violence in school," Crime and Justice: An Annual Review of Research, Vol. 4). A November 1983 report prepared by the Boston Commission on Safe Public Schools, chaired by retired Massachusetts Supreme Court Justice Paul C. Reardon entitled, "Making Our Schools Safer for Learn*302ing," concluded that the problems described in the NIE report have probably worsened since 1978.