LAUSD votes to terminate the ‘random metal detector’ search policy at schools
By Zaid Diaz-Arias
The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education voted four to three to discontinue the Administrative Searches to Ensure School Safety policy that required daily metal detector searches of students and student property as a safety precaution.
The vote took place on June 18, marking a victory for the Students Not Suspects coalition, which has now trended on social media platforms as #SNS, whom’s campaign efforts have been going on since 2014.
The SNS coalition included the ACLU of SoCal, the United Teachers of Los Angeles, Public Counsel, the Youth Justice Coalition, Students Deserve, and Black Lives Matter Los Angeles. These organizations have worked to eliminate LAUSD’s random metal detector search policy for five years now as a coalition and for twenty years since the policy was initially passed.
In the twenty years that the “random search” policy was enacted, student activists have advocated for the elimination of the policy. Many students felt criminalized and unsafe in their own school.
Others felt targeted and distracted, as stated on Tuesday’s board meeting by students themselves. Some experienced lawyers, advocates, and sociologists from SNS believed that the random search policy aided the school to prison pipeline.
Irene Rocha Rivera, Education Policy Advocate of the ACLU of Southern California, said that “[the ACLU’s] journey started in 1992 when LAUSD adopted what is likely the most invasive student search policy in the nation.”
Grounding themselves on the Supreme Court’s recognition of student privacy, Students Not Suspects stated in their Here to Learn report that random searches in LAUSD are “unconstitutional” and are a “violation of the Fourth Amendment.” SNS attempted to urge Board Members to discontinue the policy, that required school staff to pull students out of class, thoroughly search student backpacks, dump their belongings and pass a metal detecting wand over them.
Firsthand witnessing the endeavors, working with students and discussing this controversial matter, Rivera, on behalf of the ACLU SoCal, told us that “the random metal detector search policy has impacted students’ lives by making them feel targeted, in particular black, brown, and Muslim students.
Wanding students has left them unable to trust some of the adults at their school and even left some students not wanting to go to school at all in order to not feel criminalized.”
The coalition was constructed on the fundamental notion that although the Administrative Searches to Ensure School Safety policy was never meant to target minority students, it has evolved into a biased and non-objective searching process. The coalition heard from students who’ve experienced this non-intended prejudice practice. Student testimonies were the reason Rivera fought with #SNS.
“Knowing that students often feel violated of their rights because of what their administrators are expected to do and the fact that it’s such a waste of class time” is what inspired her to take on a prominent role in this campaign, leading to the biggest accomplishment in the SNS Campaign.
Schools will finally eliminate all random metal detector searches, that had been going on for approximately 30 years, by July 1, 2020.
The ACLU SoCal Education Policy Advocate said that
“when [the elimination of the policy] takes effect, 300,000 Los Angeles students will no longer face suspicionless searches each day. Students will recover more than 24,000 instructional minutes annually, and LAUSD will recoup $1.12 million in staffing costs per year.”
Board Member George McKenna was advocating concerns on the elimination of this policy, saying that it should not be eliminated if there is no alternative currently in place.
The Board meeting goers booed his statements, for they believed the cons of the policy outweighed the pros. According to Rivera, the fact that there is currently no alternative to the random search policy should not be a concern.
SNS “want[s] nurses, social workers, psychologists, peer mediation, community-based safe passage programs, restorative justice, positive behavior intervention, and supports.”
Ultimately, the ACLU SoCal and Board President Monica Garcia’s resolution to end random searches in July 2020, passed.
The SNS coalition has demanded in one phrase “counselors, not cops.” Although currently there is no set plan to what will substitute the search policy, Students Not Suspects have proposed alternatives to the district and are pushing these reforms within LA School Safety Task Force.
Although the resolution was passed, SNS’s work has not finished. There has already been movement as to what the district can and should have been doing in the first place.
