DrTodd
Michigan Moderator
"i agree, tell your daughter not to give the keys to anyone. until you get there. if they say they are going to tow it, and you arrive first drive away."
Personally, I like the drive away approach but if they tow it, all is not lost. It won't get searched. What, the school is going to send someone to the impound to do a search? There off school grounds and now on very shaky grounds. There's a huge difference between letting the 'school' search your car and having the 'police' search your car. If the school wants to search after one of 'their' drug dogs 'hits' on your car, invoke 'the plan'. Even if there is a 'school safety' police officer on site, I'll bet they wouldn't search as 'they' don't have RAS, particularly with a school-contracted 'drug dog' service. Now if the real police wants to search your car, there's a whole different set of procedures.
Oh yeah, train your daughter to not say a thing other than 'I want to call my parents'. She may have not been the only one in the car, and there may be something that is not hers, but was left by someone else. I know kids busted for cig butts (minor in possession), ashes, BB's on the floor (ammo!), small pen knife, etc. Become familiar with the school procedures and hold them to it - there may be an ombudsman... For example, at our school, the principal was the designated 'searcher', but there were times when the 'drug dog' handler did the search. Given the number of false positives these dogs have, and the conflict of interest in letting the people who hold the contract do the search, it is in their interest to 'find' something, even if its some 'organic matter' that 'looks' like marijuana. Your school probably has a 'look-alike' policy that carries the same weight as the real thing.
Carry on
B. C. v Plumas Unified School District (9th Cir. 9/20/99), holding that suspicionless dog sniffing of high school students violates the Fourth Amendment.