Practice scenarios

Fourth Amendment · Apply the rule

A teacher tells the vice principal that she saw a student smoking in the bathroom. The vice principal asks the student to come to the office and opens her purse to look for cigarettes.

What standard does the school need to meet to search the purse?

• A warrant signed by a judge
• Probable cause, the same as police
• Reasonable suspicion that the search will turn up evidence of a rule violation
• A general school policy allowing searches, even without a reason to suspect this student