J.D. v. State

920 So. 2d 117, 2006 Fla. App. LEXIS 798
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJanuary 25, 2006
DocketNo. 4D04-3074
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 920 So. 2d 117 (J.D. v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
J.D. v. State, 920 So. 2d 117, 2006 Fla. App. LEXIS 798 (Fla. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

WARNER, J.

J.D. appeals her adjudication of delinquency for possession of marijuana, which was based on the discovery of the cannabis in her purse at school. The central question in this appeal is whether a school official must have reasonable suspicion to detain and question a student concerning criminal activity or a violation of school rules. Although the school official must have reasonable suspicion to search a student, see New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325, 333, 105 S.Ct. 733, 83 L.Ed.2d 720 (1985), we hold that in a school setting a school official’s removal of a student from class to question the student does not violate. the Fourth Amendment so long as the official is not acting arbitrarily or capriciously. We therefore affirm the trial court.

A Taravella High School assistant principal informed School Security Officer Edward MaGuire that one of the school’s Crime Watch students had reported information regarding J.D. The school Crime Watch consisted of particular students who informed school officials of illegal activity occurring on the campus. MaGuire testified that such reports were seventy-five percent reliable. Unfortunately, the trial court erroneously sustained a hearsay objection to the contents of the tip, even though hearsay evidence is admissible in suppression hearings. See Lara v. State, 464 So.2d 1173, 1177 (Fla.1985); State v. Cortez, 705 So.2d 676, 679 (Fla. 3d DCA 1998). Nevertheless, as a result of the tip, MaGuire went to J.D.’s classroom and asked her to accompany him to the office. Once in the office, MaGuire asked J.D. if she had anything illegal, and J.D. readily admitted that she did, giving MaGuire five baggies of marijuana. MaGuire did not conduct any type of search because J.D. voluntarily and readily gave him the drugs in her possession. J.D. was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana.

J.D. moved to suppress the marijuana, contending that her detention was illegal because it was based upon an unsubstantiated tip. J.D. argued that because there was no reasonable suspicion to detain her, the fruits of the subsequent seizure should be suppressed. The trial court disagreed, concluding that the detention of J.D. under the circumstances was reasonable. Because the suppression ruling was disposi-[119]*119tive, J.D. pled nolo contendere to the charge, reserving her right to appeal.

The issue presented in this appeal requires us to determine which test should be applied to justify a detention of a student for investigation of criminal conduct. In New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325, 105 S.Ct. 733, 83 L.Ed.2d 720 (1985), the Supreme Court held that the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures applied to searches conducted by school officials. The Court indicated that a search in the school setting does not require probable cause to pass constitutional muster. Instead, legality of a student search must be judged by whether the search was reasonable under all the circumstances. However, T.L.O. involved a search, not a detention. Therefore, the Court did not decide the standard to be applied to detain a student for questioning. Nevertheless, T.L.O. is the starting point for the Fourth Amendment analysis of this issue.

A teacher found T.L.O. and another student smoking in the lavatory. As this was a school rule violation, the teacher took the children to the principal’s office. T.L.O. denied smoking and the principal accused her of lying. He then opened her purse, revealing cigarettes. When he removed the cigarettes, he noticed rolling papers, frequently associated with drug use. He then searched the purse more carefully and found marijuana as well as other drug paraphernalia. Ultimately, the state brought delinquency charges against T.L.O., and in due course she moved to suppress the evidence against her claiming the search was in violation of the Fourth Amendment. After the case wound its way through the state courts, the Supreme Court took jurisdiction to determine the application of the Fourth Amendment to the conduct of public school officials.

Rejecting the state’s argument that the Fourth Amendment did not apply because the school officials were acting in loco parentis, the Court concluded that the officials were acting as agents of the state when conducting searches and seizures for the purposes of enforcing criminal laws or school disciplinary rules. Thus, the Fourth Amendment applied to searches conducted by school officials. However,

Although the underlying command of the Fourth Amendment is always that searches and seizures be reasonable, what is reasonable depends on the context within which a search takes place. The determination of the standard of reasonableness governing any specific class of searches requires “balancing the need to search against the invasion which the search entails.”

Id. at 337, 105 S.Ct. 733 (quoting Camara v. Mun. Court, 387 U.S. 523, 536-37, 87 S.Ct. 1727, 18 L.Ed.2d 930 (1967)). The court discussed the invasion of privacy entailed by a search and refused to say that a child at school had no legitimate expectation of privacy. It noted that children frequently bring personal items to school, sometimes in purses, and they should not be expected to waive their privacy interest in these items simply by bringing them to school. Nevertheless, weighing against a student’s privacy interest is the school’s need to foster an environment that is safe for education. Thus, “the preservation of order and a proper educational environment requires close supervision of schoolchildren, as well as the enforcement of rules against conduct that would be perfectly permissible if undertaken by an adult.” Id. at 339,105 S.Ct. 733.

The Court struck a balance between the two competing interests and fashioned a test for searches conducted in a school:

[120]*120The school setting also requires some modification of the level of suspicion of illicit activity needed to justify a search.
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We join the majority of courts that have examined this issue in concluding that the accommodation of the privacy interests of schoolchildren with the substantial need of teachers and administrators for freedom to maintain order in the schools does not require strict adherence to the requirement that searches be based on probable cause to believe that the subject of the search has violated or is violating the law. Rather, the legality of a search of a student should depend simply on the reasonableness, under all the circumstances, of the search. Determining the reasonableness of any search involves a twofold inquiry: first, one must consider “whether the ... action was justified at its inception,” Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S., at 20, 88 S.Ct., at 1879; second, one must determine whether the search as actually conducted “was reasonably related in scope to the circumstances which justified the interference in the first place,” ibid.

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Bluebook (online)
920 So. 2d 117, 2006 Fla. App. LEXIS 798, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jd-v-state-fladistctapp-2006.