Legal Question in Criminal Law in Massachusetts

Re: Law's of searching properies.

The short answer is that they probably do. The school is not your child's property, but rather property owned and managed by the state (assuming a public school). An analogy might be "can the police search a child's room at home with the permission of the parent?" Most people have no problem with that question, but the answer here could be "No" if the child was 21 and paying rent.

The bigger unanswered question is: "What were the police looking for, and what did they find?"

If they were looking for hub caps, and they found marijuana in a small envelope, you might have a chance to suppress the marijuana -- but you need a lawyer to achieve that result. If they had reports your child was selling drugs, the police responded with dogs, who went straight to your child's locker, and the drugs were found -- then this is going to be a tough case to suppress...

At this point, the police have your child's stuff. If it is not contraband, you may want to get it back. If it is illegal, and your child is being charged with a crime, you may want to suppress the evidence, preventing its use against your child. To achieve these, you need a lawyer.

Thomas Workman

Law Offices of Thomas Workman

41 Harrison Street, Taunton, MA