EDUCATORS HIT WALL ON STUDENT LOCKER SEARCHES

HILO -- The state Board of Education was unable to resolve the thorny
issue of impromptu searches of student lockers at public schools,
ultimately deciding to postpone is matter.

Revisions to the Chapter 19 student conduct and discipline code were
sent back to committee following a grueling BOE meeting Thursday in
Honolulu that ran past midnight.

The controversial clause allowing school administrators to search
student lockers "with or without cause" proved to be the biggest
sticking point. Opponents have called the measure a violation of
students' civil rights.

Whether constitutional or not, searches without cause didn't sit well
with board members, who're asking the state attorney general to
revise the language.

Months could pass before any policy change takes effect.

"This is a very hot, thorny issue," said Mary Cochran, chairwoman of
the BOE Committee on Special Programs, which has spent the last year
and a half working on the revisions.

The clause was recently taken out of the revisions, then put back in
on advice from the attorney general that the move did not violate
privacy rights. When the BOE Committee on Special Programs takes up
the revisions again in a meeting Oct. 24, the clause may be removed
yet again or at least modified.

"We're going to have to work on the language. The attorney general is
working on it. They're the ones who put the language together," Cochran said.

Since Chapter 19 carries the weight of law, the revisions must go to
public hearing, then be signed by the governor, said Big Island BOE
representative Herbert Watanabe.

"We're trying to find a way to do this in a way that doesn't
jeopardize student privacy," Watanabe said.

Jon Van Dyke, a University of Hawaii law professor who wrote a book
on search and siezure protocol used at schools around the country,
opposes the search clause and the use of drug-sniffing dogs.

"They're inconsistent with decisions of the Hawaii Supreme Court and
the 9th Circuit Court, which require reasonable individual suspicion.
And they're unconstitutional," Van Dyke said. "It is the kind of
thing that will likely be abused, used selectively, perhaps in a
discriminatory fashion."

If the board can come to an agreement on language, the public
meetings go smoothly and the governor signs off on the rule changes,
the revisions could take effect in four months, Watanabe said. It
could take a year if things go less smoothly.