Search, Seizure and Surrender

 

Adopted17th June 2019.

Reviewed September 2021.

The next review date will be September 2024.

 

Policy Statement

KingsGate school must act reasonably, in good faith and in the least intrusive manner to achieve a safe environment. This enables the school to be consistent with its obligations under the Human Rights Act 1993 to protect students from discrimination and under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 to ensure there are guards against unreasonable search and seizure.

 

Rationale

KingsGate School is required to provide a safe physical and emotional environment for students and staff. The purpose of this policy is to provide guidelines for the use of surveillance, search and seizure techniques and processes in situations where school leadership has reasonable grounds to suspect that there is a risk to the School’s safe and secure learning environment.

 

Guidelines

Teachers will continue to use appropriate and usual behaviour management practices that enable them to teach and students to learn. This will deal with most cases that require teacher intervention; however, there are certain occasions that require a different response.

To ensure that KingsGate School is a safe and secure learning environment for all students and staff, it is important to ensure that students are not in possession of items that are harmful, likely to endanger safety or will detrimentally affect the learning environment.

This includes physical items and cyber-bullying material stored on computers, USB memory sticks, cell phones and other electronic media.

If a teacher or authorized staff member believes on reasonable grounds that a student has an item that is harmful, likely to endanger safety or detrimentally affect the learning environment, then a student can be required to produce, reveal, surrender the item. This includes the device on which the item is stored.

 

There is a “Schedule of words explained” section that explains the underlined items at the end of this policy.

 

If the item is not considered harmful:

If it is surrendered, it may be retained, stored, disposed of, passed to another person or returned.

If it is not surrendered, the School’s usual disciplinary or behaviour management practices should be used.

 

If the item is considered harmful:

If it is surrendered, it may be retained, stored, disposed of, passed to another person or returned. See the below section on what this means.

If it is not surrendered, a teacher or authorized staff member may either:

a. Deal with it under the School’s usual disciplinary or behaviour management practices or

b. require a student to remove specific clothing or surrender the bag or container.

Before making the requirement to remove specific clothing or surrender the bag or container, the teacher or authorized staff member should attempt to obtain permission of another member of staff to witness the making of the requirement.

After making the requirement above in 2:

If the requirement is complied with, the teacher or authorized staff member can search the removed clothing or the surrendered bag or container. A search must not be conducted while the item is being worn; or

If the student refuses, the School’s usual disciplinary or behaviour management practices should be used.

If the item is found it may be retained, stored, disposed of, passed to another person or returned and the removed clothing or the surrendered bag or container should be returned.

Retaining the item, storing it, returning it passing it on or disposing of it

Once an item is in possession of a teacher or authorized staff member, taking all care with the item and as soon as practicable, it should be given to a member of the Senior Leadership Team for a decision to be made as to what happens to it. Any further decisions concerning the item will be made by a member of the Senior Leadership Team.

If a decision is made to retain it, it must be held in a secure place that can only be accessed by a member of the Senior Leadership Team. A decision must then be made as soon as practicable to further retain it, pass it on, dispose of it or return it.

At any time, the item may be returned to the student, the parent of the student, or where neither is the owner of the item, the owner of the item.

Where it is deemed appropriate, the item may be passed on the Police or other appropriate agency that has responsibility for the relevant item. This will depend upon whether the item is considered to continue to pose harm to the staff and/or students.

Where a decision is made to dispose of the item, it must not be sold. Disposal may include destruction or deletion, where it relates to an electronic image.

An electronic device must not be disposed of.

A detailed record must be kept of every decision made to retain, store, return, pass on or dispose of an item surrendered or retained as a result of a search.

 

Schedule of words explained:

Authorized staff: a person that is an employee of the BOT, but not a teacher, that is given authorization by the BOT to exercise specified powers under this policy. The Principal will decide who can be authorised staff;

Harmful: poses an immediate threat to the physical or emotional safety of any person;

Endanger safety: considering the particular circumstances of the case, is that item or object more likely than not going to endanger safety?

Detrimentally affect the learning environment: has a negative or disruptive effect on learning or general discipline;

Require: a formal request by a teacher or authorized person to comply with an instruction

 

Reference:

‘Guidelines for the surrender and retention of property and searches’, MoE 2014