MD v. State

65 So. 3d 563, 2011 WL 2535336
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJune 28, 2011
Docket1D10-3055
StatusPublished

This text of 65 So. 3d 563 (MD 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
MD v. State, 65 So. 3d 563, 2011 WL 2535336 (Fla. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

65 So.3d 563 (2011)

M.D., a child, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 1D10-3055.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

June 28, 2011.
Rehearing Denied July 27, 2011.

*564 Nancy A. Daniels, Public Defender, and Glenna Joyce Reeves, Assistant Public Defender, Tallahassee, for Appellant.

Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, and Heather Flanagan Ross, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.

WOLF, J.

A student possessed a gun on school grounds. In light of the serious nature of the threat and the location in which it took place, the actions of school authorities *565 were reasonable. We, thus, uphold the trial court's denial of the motion to suppress and affirm appellant's conviction.

Five precepts guide our ruling in this case:

(1) allegations of possession of a gun on a school campus should be treated differently than similar allegations in other settings;
(2) students in school do not possess the same breadth of constitutional rights as parties in other settings;
(3) school resource officers should be treated as part of the school administrative team and not as outside police officers entering school grounds to conduct an investigation;
(4) courts should not second-guess the reasonable administrative decision of school officials to segregate a student from the general population prior to questioning a student about possible weapons possession; and
(5) courts should not question reasonable administrative policy decisions of school officials concerning the method of insuring safety in their security office.

In the underlying case, an anonymous tipster called the school on the day before the search and informed school officials that the student had carried a gun onto campus three months earlier. As a result, the school resource officer asked a school security guard to escort himself and the student to the security office, but did not tell the security guard why the student needed to be questioned. As a general policy, all students entering the security office were searched. When the student was asked to empty his pockets, he told the guard that he was carrying a lighter against school policy. When the student emptied his pockets, the security guard observed a gun on the student's person. At all relevant times, the security guard was unaware of the resource officer's reasons for calling the student to the security office.

Allegations of gun possession on school campuses are different from traditional Fourth Amendment cases. Many courts have recognized these cases are unique because of the seriousness of the threat, the location of the threat, the vulnerability and number of potential victims, and the lessened expectation of privacy of students.

In J.A.R. v. State, 689 So.2d 1242 (Fla. 2d DCA 1997), the court recognized the unique danger weapons pose in a school setting and the need for student safety. Appellant urges us to reject the J.A.R. approach based on the case of Florida v. J.L., 529 U.S. 266, 272, 120 S.Ct. 1375, 146 L.Ed.2d 254 (2000), in which the United States Supreme Court rejected a "firearms" exception to the general rule that anonymous tips, without corroboration, are insufficient to justify a search, when the tips suggest the suspect is carrying a firearm. However, in so holding, the Court made a point of stating that:

The facts of this case do not require us to speculate about the circumstances under which the danger alleged in an anonymous tip might be so great as to justify a search even without a showing of reliability. We do not say, for example, that a report of a person carrying a bomb need bear the indicia of reliability we demand for a report of a person carrying a firearm before the police can constitutionally conduct a frisk. Nor do we hold that public safety officials in quarters where the reasonable expectation of Fourth Amendment privacy is diminished, such as airports . . . and schools, see New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325, 105 S.Ct. 733, 83 L.Ed.2d 720 (1985), cannot conduct protective searches on the basis *566 of information insufficient to justify searches elsewhere.

J.L., 529 U.S. at 273-74 (emphasis added).

In T.L.O., the Supreme Court recognized that the special circumstances involved with conducting a search of a student on school property required that "the legality of a search of a student should depend simply on the reasonableness, under all the circumstances, of the search." 469 U.S. at 381, 105 S.Ct. 733. The reason for this reduced standard is 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." Id. In order for a search to be reasonable, the action has to be justified from the beginning, and the search has to be reasonably related in scope to the reason for the search. Id. at 341-342, 105 S.Ct. 733. Further, a school search "will be permissible. . . when the measures adopted are reasonably related to the objectives of the search and not excessively intrusive in light of the age and sex of the student and the nature of the infraction." Id. at 342, 105 S.Ct. 733.

As the Supreme Court noted in T.L.O., the critical determination under the Fourth Amendment is whether the actions of the school officials were reasonable in light of all the circumstances. Appellant urges us to apply the probable-cause standard to this analysis because the search was conducted pursuant to an inquiry begun by the school resource officer. He then asks us to find the actions of the school officials were unreasonable. The law and common sense support neither of these determinations.

As noted in J.A.R. and T.L.O., the reasonable-suspicion standard is the appropriate standard to apply to the unique situation posed by the potential existence of firearms on school grounds. Every other District Court in the state has determined that the reasonable-suspicion standard is appropriate for searches of students on school grounds by school officials, including resource officers. See State v. J.H., 898 So.2d 240, 241 (Fla. 4th DCA 2005); K.K. v. State, 717 So.2d 629, 630 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998); State v. Whorley, 720 So.2d 282, 283 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998); State v. D.S., 685 So.2d 41, 43 (Fla. 3d DCA 1996).

The only possible support for applying the probable-cause standard to a search by a school resource officer is a 1981 case, M.J. v. State, 399 So.2d 996 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981). However, M.J. is distinguishable on the facts because the officer involved was an outside officer called to the school for the purposes of aiding in a search of a student. Id. Here, the relevant officer participation involved a school resource officer, rather than an outside police officer, and a different standard applies.

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65 So. 3d 563, 2011 WL 2535336, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/md-v-state-fladistctapp-2011.