<p>Say you leave a backpack laying around and a P/AP finds it, are they allowed to go through the contents?</p>
<p>No unless you attend a private institution and you agree to it. Otherwise, they need reasonable suspicion in order to go through your backpack.</p>
<p>What if they thought you had drugs in there... and they found some?</p>
<p>If it's incredibly suspicious then I guess maybe. Like unclaimed baggage at the airport, or bags left in the bathroom or something.</p>
<p>Sometimes they're just looking for identification which might happen to be the name on a notebook or a paper in a folder.</p>
<p>But I doubt they'd look through your stuff for the heck of it.</p>
<p>Yeah, they're allowed as long as they have reason to. In today's day and age, you have to be careful about bags left somewhere. I agree with tom, they look to make sure it's a normal bag, there isn't a massive amounts of drugs, and to look for identification.</p>
<p>If they thought you had drugs and they found them, then you're screwed and expelled and probably have criminal charges.</p>
<p>Somebody has drugs in his backpack. :P</p>
<p>Well according to this chick who was freaking out, she left her purse out during lunch and the AP said he was looking for identification and he found drugs... is he legit?</p>
<p>Not me atrophic, you think I wanna risk my Penn acceptance? XD</p>
<p>Yeah completely legal to do that. </p>
<p>Here's a hint-- if you do drugs (which you shouldn't) DON'T BRING THEM TO SCHOOL! I have no sympathy for this chick, because that's just sheer stupidity.</p>
<p>I remember studying a case like this last year in gov about students' rights. The rights of the school as a whole outweigh those of the individual.
'</p>
<p>Students have surprisingly few rights if you actually read the rules governing such things. Ours is called "Student Rights and Responsibilities," or SR&R, and it definitely contains no protections against unresonable search and seizure. </p>
<p>Your friend should read your equivalent version of the school rules to determine whether or not the AP was out of line.</p>
<p>@eloquence: actually, yeah, from what I learned in my government class. There's some Supreme Court case that says that if you search a house for one thing and see something else, then you can still charge a person for that "something else." </p>
<p>Also, if you search the wrong house and the police see something in your house, then they can bring charges up against you as well, but I don't like that idea.</p>
<p>Well I mean by this point she's screwed, the guy found pills and tobacco in her purse, and she's getting a court drug test and she smoked last saturday so she's going crazy to get clean lol D:</p>
<p>^^ I don't mind APs and principles having that much power. It makes me feel safer because I know I'm not dumb enough to bring something I shouldn't to school.</p>
<p>ha, this reminds me of a supreme court case that my english/history class reinacted- new jersey v. tlo.</p>
<p>dude
she should have blazed it in the morning to get rid of the evidence.</p>
<p>i don't blaze tobacco or pills.</p>
<p>no, you just dont keep the drugs on you at school... simple solution.</p>
<p>Haha, leanlikeacello, I was just about to post a link to the Wikipedia article on TLO.</p>
<p>Well here it is anyway: New</a> Jersey v. T.L.O.</p>
<p>yes. you get expelled even if the stuff isn't yours.</p>
<p>yes. you get expelled even if the stuff isn't yours.</p>