Court Opinion

ID: 9626301
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 08:07:54.408655+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:00:08.955324
License: Public Domain

Dolliver, J.
(dissenting) — The majority holds the "reasonable belief" test, as set forth in State v. McKinnon, 88 Wn.2d 75, 558 P.2d 781 (1977), applies to the unusual facts of this case. While no search in our society is to be taken lightly, I disagree with the characterization of the events in this case as a violation of the Fourth Amendment and Const. art. 1, § 7. Accordingly, I dissent.
I
The majority asserts the defendants were "clothed with *604the authority of state law". Majority opinion, at 602. It rests this position on the fact that the luggage check was a condition precedent to participation on a class trip which schools were authorized by statute to conduct. Ignored, however, is the fact the idea of a predeparture luggage check evolved from the booster club which was composed only of parents and students and that it was proposed by the students' and parents' idea to prevent drinking and drug possession on class trips — class trips which the school was not required to sponsor. The majority, moreover, has not considered the following facts: there had been, and common sense suggests, certainly to an attentive parent if not to this court, there might again be, cases of liquor possession and use; the students' attendance on the trips was not required; the students paid their own way. While it is true the principal issued letters stating to parents that their children must submit to the luggage check, this fact alone surely is not dispositive of the issue. The letter in substance is simply a formal expression of the private views of the parents and the students who conceived of and almost unanimously approved of the luggage check.
The majority characterizes the luggage check as "joint action" between state officials and private persons. Majority opinion, at 602 (citing Dennis v. Sparks, 449 U.S. 24, 27-28, 66 L. Ed. 2d 185, 101 S. Ct. 183 (1980)). The present case, however, unlike Dennis, was not a "conspiracy" to deprive anyone of constitutional rights. On the contrary, the search was conceived and executed by parents and their children to further the safety of children who were participating in a voluntary class trip to a foreign country. The fact that the school had the authority to, and did in fact, organize and participate in the trip does not transform the "private" nature of the search into a full blown school search case.
The relevant inquiry here is whose interest is being furthered by the search: the State's or the parents'? People v. Zelinski, 24 Cal. 3d 357, 367, 594 P.2d 1000, 155 Cal. Rptr. 575 (1979) (statute enabling private store detectives to *605make criminal arrests is state action since it furthers the public interest in enforcing the criminal laws; no state action in private search for store security only). The reality of this case is that the parents' interest was being primarily furthered by the search. Any benefit to the school, which was not required to sponsor these trips, was incidental. I disagree with the majority's conclusion that there was state action in this search.
II
Even if it is conceded, arguendo, that there was state action in this search, I disagree with the majority's conclusion that the Fourth Amendment governs. Analysis of the unique facts of this case suggests that the search was a "private search" to which the Fourth Amendment does not apply.
Searches in the school context have historically been justified by the doctrine of in loco parentis. That doctrine is based on the premise that a school official stands in the place of a parent when the student is in the school's custody. 1 W. Blackstone, Commentaries *453; Mawdsley, In Loco Parentis: A Balance of Interests, 61 Ill. B.J. 638 (1973). Strictly applying in loco parentis several courts have held that searches made pursuant to the teacher-student relationship are "private searches". Two recent cases, both criminal, demonstrate the point. Mercer v. State, 450 S.W.2d 715 (Tex. Civ. App. 1970); D.R.C. v. State, 646 P.2d 252 (Alaska Ct. App. 1982). These cases are "empty the pockets" cases in which a school official suspected a student possessed contraband. The rationale of these cases is that, where police are not involved, the search was private based on the school officials' "parental" duty to maintain discipline in the schools. The inquiry is in what capacity the school officials were acting at the time of the search: were they acting as law enforcement officers or as in loco parentis (substitute) parents? Accord, State v. Gonzales, 24 Wn. App. 437, 604 P.2d 168 (1979) (search by private security officer not subject to Fourth Amendment); United States v. Coles, 302 F. Supp. 99 (D. Me. 1969) (search by adminis*606trative officer in federal job corps center not subject to Fourth Amendment); State v. Keadle, 51 N.C. App. 660, 277 S.E.2d 456 (1981) (search by state paid dormitory resident adviser not subject to Fourth Amendment); State v. Kappes, 26 Ariz. App. 567, 550 P.2d 121 (1976) (same).
While judicial application of the in loco parentis doctrine as a means of avoiding the Fourth Amendment in criminal school search cases has been questioned, e.g., Buss, The Fourth Amendment and Searches of Students in Public Schools, 59 Iowa L. Rev. 739, 765-68 (1974), I find the doctrine quite relevant in the present case. Unlike the case of a criminal investigation by school officials where there is a question as to whether the officials are acting in the best interests of the students, the school and parents in the present case were in fact charged with onerous parental-like responsibilities. The search, moreover, was not motivated by nor did it in any way resemble the seizure of criminal evidence. See Case Comment, Search and Seizure — School Officials' Authority To Search Students Is Augmented by the In Loco Parentis Doctrine — Nelson v. State, 319 So. 2d 154 (Fla. 2d Dist. Ct. App. 1975), 5 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 526, 530-31 (1977). The parents were not acting in the capacity of "government agents" searching luggage for contraband; any contraband found was not to be turned over to the police and prosecutors. No criminal sanctions were contemplated. On the contrary, the parents were merely furthering a purely disciplinary function by ensuring that no alcohol was present on the class trip. Thus, I would distinguish such cases as State v. McKinnon, supra, to which the Fourth Amendment applies, as cases in which school officials are acting in a law enforcement capacity at the time said official authorized and/or conducted the search.
The majority, without analysis, asserts "[i]t makes no difference whether the search was conducted by the band director, the principal, or the parents. When a private person is acting under the authority of the State, Fourth Amendment protections apply." Majority opinion, at 600 *607(citing inter alia United States v. Walther, 652 F.2d 788 (9th Cir. 1981)). The majority's reliance on Walther, however, is erroneous. Walther involved a private person searching for criminal contraband in concert with the police. Under those circumstances, private persons may indeed be constructive "government agents". See State v. McKinnon, 88 Wn.2d 75, 82, 558 P.2d 781 (1977). In the present case, however, the searches were not motivated by the enforcement of the criminal laws nor were they motivated by a search for regulatory violations which are enforced by criminal sanctions. See Camara v. Municipal Court, 387 U.S. 523, 531, 18 L. Ed. 2d 930, 87 S. Ct. 1727 (1967). On the contrary, the luggage checks were supervisory or disciplinary and in furtherance of the school's and parents' constructive parental responsibility. See State v. Gonzales, supra. This is a long distance from a search for which the Fourth Amendment provides protection.
The criminal cases, to which the Fourth Amendment applies, are also distinguishable in that the evidence discovered in those cases surely would be used in criminal proceedings. In the present case, the notice sent to the participating students did not threaten criminal sanctions in the event that unlawful substances were found. Rather it provided: "If drugs or liquor are found [in the search], the student will be sent home and the parents notified to come pick him or her up." In fact, students caught with liquor on past trips were not sent to the police station; rather, their parents were asked to pick them up.
I would hold that neither the Fourth Amendment nor Const, art. 1, § 7 apply to the search in this case. To hold that parents searching children's luggage to prevent the consumption of alcohol or drugs on a nonrequired, voluntary class trip are "government agents" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment makes a mockery of that cherished constitutional protection.
The majority citing Jacobsen v. Seattle, 98 Wn.2d 668, 658 P.2d 653 (1983) refers to the possible "damage to the understanding of constitutional guaranties of freedom from *608unreasonable searches on the part of these young persons is incalculable." Jacobsen, at 674. I suggest the damage to young minds is equally incalculable from observing a court which is unable to distinguish the situation in this case from that in cases such as Jacobsen.
Ill
Even if the Fourth Amendment and Const. art. 1, § 7 did apply, the majority's disposition of this case is erroneous. In State v. McKinnon, we acknowledged that the in loco parentis interest of a school in maintaining school discipline justified the lowering of the "probable cause" standard to "reasonable belief". The majority asserts that McKinnon's "reasonable belief" test applies to the present case since the search standard in the school environment may never drop below reasonable belief and that individualized suspicion of wrongdoing is always necessary.
The facts in this case present precisely the case in which a student may be required to submit to a search without reasonable belief or individualized suspicion. There are important differences between the search conducted in McKinnon and the one in the present case. Although we characterized his general duties as an administrator and not a law enforcement officer, the searching school official in McKinnon was actually acting more in a quasi-law enforcement manner when he conducted the search. He had received a tip from the police that a student possessed unlawful substances and his search was motivated by the discovery of those drugs. I would affirm that under those circumstances there must be an individualized suspicion of wrongdoing as set forth in McKinnon. In contrast, the luggage check in the present case was not motivated by nor did it in any way resemble a search for incriminating evidence. The fact that the students received prior notice of the search practically ensured that the searching chaperons would not find anything. Application of the in loco parentis doctrine is appropriate under these circumstances where the school district was in fact charged with parental-like *609responsibilities.
The fact that the searchers were parents and not school officials confirms the search served a genuinely in loco par-entis function. The parents and the school were charged with the difficult responsibility of supervising the students while they were visiting a foreign country. Under these circumstances, the luggage search was genuinely disciplinary in nature.
In characterizing the search as "unreasonable", the majority places strong reliance on Jacobsen v. Seattle, supra, in which this court held that the Seattle Police Department could not "preventatively" search rock concert patrons as they entered the Seattle Coliseum. Upholding the search here, however, is not inconsistent with Jacobsen. The searches in Jacobsen did not arise in the school context where, as noted above, the Fourth Amendment is considerably more flexible. More particularly, neither the management of the Coliseum nor the Seattle Police Department was conducting the searches in furtherance of a judicially recognized noncriminal in loco parentis duty. Instead, they were enforcing criminal laws which prohibited the possession of bottles, drugs, and other contraband.
Upholding the subject search, moreover, is not inconsistent with Jacobsen in that we impliedly rejected there the proposition that a search does not become constitutional merely because it is announced in advance or is conducted pursuant to a "voluntary" activity. While prior notice of a search and voluntariness of the activity standing alone do not diminish one's legitimate expectation of privacy, these factors are very relevant considerations in determining the "reasonableness" of a search in certain school contexts. For example, one factor used in State v. McKinnon, supra, was the fact that children are compelled by law to be in school. Here the activity for which the search was required was voluntary. The preannounced search was a relatively unin-trusive way for the District and the chaperons to conduct a search. Moreover, the school trip to Canada was not an everyday activity conducted on school premises. The chap*610eron parents and the school district have assumed enormous responsibilities in conducting this trip. I express no opinion whether unannounced "spot searches" on a similar class trip or generally under any school circumstances would pass constitutional muster.
While there may exist a genuine question whether a search of this kind is the best way to maintain discipline of high school students on a class trip, and while other alternatives perhaps could have been used, I would hold it does not violate the rights of students under either the federal or state constitutions.
I dissent.
Dimmick and Andersen, JJ., concur with Dolliver, J.
Reconsideration denied April 3, 1985.