SJC RULES SCHOOL'S SEARCH OF STUDENT WAS NOT LEGAL

Boston English High School freshman who was caught with a bag of marijuana
hidden in his shoe after he skipped classes was illegally searched by
school officials, the state's highest court ruled yesterday.

School officials were not justified in searching the student because
nothing indicated that he might be carrying contraband, the court ruled.
The student - known in court papers as either ''V.H.'' or ''Damian D.'' -
had skipped a few classes and had not brought his mother to school to meet
with officials about his truancy.

The Supreme Judicial Court found that the search violated not only the
school's policy, but the standard for student searches adopted by the US
Supreme Court. The SJC decision overturned a ruling from a Boston Juvenile
Court judge who had found the student delinquent.

''It was pure speculation to conclude that, because Damian was out of class
for a period of time during the day, he was likely to have contraband,''
Justice Robert Cordy wrote for the court. ''Possibility and speculation,
like hunches and unparticularized suspicion, do not constitute reasonable
grounds for the search of a student.''

''I think what it makes clear is that even in this post-Columbine era, when
the threat of danger at schools is highly exaggerated, the court is still
willing to enforce the constitutional standards and provide students with a
reasonable measure of protection'' against illegal searches and seizures,
said Kenneth King, the student's lawyer from the Suffolk Law School
Juvenile Justice Center.