By Randy Ludlow, The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS – An overriding interest in ensuring student safety gives school officials greater legal leeway to conduct searches, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Thursday in a case involving a gun in the book bag of a Columbus high school student.
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Lower courts had ruled that the warrantless examination of the student’s book bags, which led to a gun-possession charge, was an unconstitutional search by school officials, thus nullifying the charge.
U.S. Supreme Court rulings establish that students have diminished expectations of privacy and the protocol used by Columbus schools does not violate Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure, the Ohio high court found in its unanimous ruling.
“We hold that the school’s protocol requiring searches of unattended book bags — to determine ownership and whether the contents are dangerous — furthers the compelling governmental interest in protecting public-school students from physical harm,” Justice Sharon L. Kennedy wrote.
The case stems from an incident at Whetstone High School in 2013, when a school official found 13 bullets in a book bag that Joshua Polk, then 18, left on a bus. Polk was tracked down in the school, and authorities charged him with a crime after a handgun was found in another bag he was carrying.
The way the searches of the book bag found on the bus were conducted was at issue. A school security official said he initially took a cursory look inside the bag, discovered papers identifying it as Polk’s, and took it to the principal’s office. The security officer thought Polk might be a gang member, and the book bag was emptied in a second search, leading to the discovery of the ammunition.