Legal Question in Constitutional Law in Pennsylvania
Schools searching cars
My neighbor goes to a private boarding school as a day student. The school administrators demanded to search his car without giving him a reason. He later discovered that they were searching for drugs that they thought were being sold to boarders. He also learned that since some people left keys at the school for emergencies, those keys were used on those cars and the students were not notified. Is this legal under the Sixth Amendment? Does it matter how old the students are?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Schools searching cars
No, you missed the real issue here. Students DO have some expectation of privacy--though minimal. However, we are talking about a PRIVATE school. When it comes to private school, almost all bets are off. A private school is not a "state actor", like a public school, and therefore students at private school can be told what to wear, and have their property searched. It may be tortious, it may be a civil wrong (like a battery, or false imprisonment), but since there is no state actor (public school) there will be no constitutional issues. The controlling case, I think, is Lopez, but again, doesn't apply to private schools.
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