searched my mail

ars1n

ars1n

Active Member
I was at school friday, and i was called to the office because aparrently the school police officers had suspision that i had bud on me. they searched my bag and didnt find anything. i had a package addressed to me in my bag, and they opened it because they said they had reason to believe i had illegal drugs on me.

now i know cops need a warrent to search my mail, but are school officers allowed to open and search my mail without a warrent, just because i brought it into the school?

i live in maine btw.

thanks guys
 
dhhbomb

dhhbomb

Well-Known Member
no doesnt matter they cannot do it either uy should sue them why would they haved more rights than regular police anything they find isnt admissible in court to my knowledge i would demand my shit back since they werent able to anyway call a lawyer they should tell u whether its legal but seriously i cant imagine what they did is legal
 
Screwston

Screwston

Well-Known Member
They have more rights because you are on their property first off. School is completely different than the real world.
 
dhhbomb

dhhbomb

Well-Known Member
yea they may but still its aginst federal law to open someonelse mail isnt it so they shouldnt been able to open it unless a dog signaled it was drugs thus proablbe cause right
 
Stoney McFried

Stoney McFried

Well-Known Member
If you consented you waived your rights.Otherwise,I think your personal property is your personal property...contact a lawyer.They'll know for sure.I googled and found no examples of mail being searched.
ars1n said:
I was at school friday, and i was called to the office because aparrently the school police officers had suspision that i had bud on me. they searched my bag and didnt find anything. i had a package addressed to me in my bag, and they opened it because they said they had reason to believe i had illegal drugs on me.

now i know cops need a warrent to search my mail, but are school officers allowed to open and search my mail without a warrent, just because i brought it into the school?

i live in maine btw.

thanks guys
Click to expand...
 
specialkayme

specialkayme

Well-Known Member
Screwston said:
They have more rights because you are on their property first off. School is completely different than the real world.
Click to expand...
In one word, that information is ...... "WRONG"

No offense Screwston, and if you would like to quote relevant law, I'd love to see it, but my guess would be that you can't. Wow, I just sounded like a dick, sorry man, I really meant no offense.

Stoney McFried said:
If you consented you waived your rights.Otherwise,I think your personal property is your personal property...contact a lawyer.They'll know for sure.I googled and found no examples of mail being searched.
Click to expand...
4th ammendment baby! teacher always helped me remember this by telling me a story of a cop with no thumb, reaching around my bag (four fingers).

Anyway, the way it works is thus: The security actually just act as if they were the local police officers, they have no more rights to search your stuff or detain you as the normal police do. Normally they have less rights, but that all depends on their classifacation. Some security officers are just joe schmoe, some are licensed PI's, others are actually police officers with renta cop badges, and others are off duty police officers, which it is really ends up helping or hurting you, so to play it safe always treat one as if they were a cop, avoids problems later on.

The cops, or security, only have the right to search your bag if (1) you consent, (2) have probable cause such as drug sniffing dogs, or (3) leave your bag open. There are other ways, but I don't feel like writing a book right now, so I'll move on. If you consent your an idiot, if they have probable cause then your fucked anyway. But if you left one of your zippers open, or slightly, that compartment is fair game, only because they could theoretically look inside that section and see something, it's open to the public, but closed bags are a no go for searches.

Also, if you had mail inside that bag, that is not open for searches, unless they have a warrant. If they searched it, then you can charge them with a number of different offenses. You can talk to a lawyer if you want, but right off the top of my head you have charges for unreasonable detention, unreasonable search, and tresspass to chattels (both your bag, and the mail). If you went to civil court, you could get the cops, and possibly their department and maybe the school, to pay you out a couple of hundred dollars. (Just estimating here, contact a lawyer if you are interested in pursuiting this)

So yeah, I'm baked, so I'm off. Hope that helped.
 
Stoney McFried

Stoney McFried

Well-Known Member
Awesome, that's good to know.+rep.
specialkayme said:
In one word, that information is ...... "WRONG"

No offense Screwston, and if you would like to quote relevant law, I'd love to see it, but my guess would be that you can't. Wow, I just sounded like a dick, sorry man, I really meant no offense.



4th ammendment baby! teacher always helped me remember this by telling me a story of a cop with no thumb, reaching around my bag (four fingers).

Anyway, the way it works is thus: The security actually just act as if they were the local police officers, they have no more rights to search your stuff or detain you as the normal police do. Normally they have less rights, but that all depends on their classifacation. Some security officers are just joe schmoe, some are licensed PI's, others are actually police officers with renta cop badges, and others are off duty police officers, which it is really ends up helping or hurting you, so to play it safe always treat one as if they were a cop, avoids problems later on.

The cops, or security, only have the right to search your bag if (1) you consent, (2) have probable cause such as drug sniffing dogs, or (3) leave your bag open. There are other ways, but I don't feel like writing a book right now, so I'll move on. If you consent your an idiot, if they have probable cause then your fucked anyway. But if you left one of your zippers open, or slightly, that compartment is fair game, only because they could theoretically look inside that section and see something, it's open to the public, but closed bags are a no go for searches.

Also, if you had mail inside that bag, that is not open for searches, unless they have a warrant. If they searched it, then you can charge them with a number of different offenses. You can talk to a lawyer if you want, but right off the top of my head you have charges for unreasonable detention, unreasonable search, and tresspass to chattels (both your bag, and the mail). If you went to civil court, you could get the cops, and possibly their department and maybe the school, to pay you out a couple of hundred dollars. (Just estimating here, contact a lawyer if you are interested in pursuiting this)

So yeah, I'm baked, so I'm off. Hope that helped.
Click to expand...
 
specialkayme

specialkayme

Well-Known Member
Stoney McFried said:
Here's some stuff I found with different search queries.Nothing specific about student mail.
https://www.lawguru.com/cgi/bbs/message.php?i=235334608&view=a
http://forum.freeadvice.com/other-crimes-federal-state-4/opening-someone-elses-mail-257740.html
http://legallad.quickanddirtytips.com/student-searches-in-school.aspx
http://www.policeworld.net/vb/archive/index.php?t-559.html
Click to expand...
Haha, Google is great isn't it Stoney?

I prefer getting my info from text books, legal research sites, and lawyers though. It's usually more acurate. But Google is a hell of a lot cheaper!
 
maineiac

maineiac

Active Member
i'm from maine too, wierd. but about your situation if you're in high school they don't need probable cause to search you. Since it was a package i am not exactly sure, probably can't sue if you're in high school, i'm not sure about college
 
specialkayme

specialkayme

Well-Known Member
maineiac said:
i'm from maine too, wierd. but about your situation if you're in high school they don't need probable cause to search you. Since it was a package i am not exactly sure, probably can't sue if you're in high school, i'm not sure about college
Click to expand...
Can sue in high school. Can sue in college.
 
specialkayme

specialkayme

Well-Known Member
maineiac said:
you could sue, but high schools do NOT need probable cause to search your shit. look at this link below, this is the law suit that first put the law in effect that public schools do not need probable cause to search your stuff.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0469_0325_ZS.html

this will explain it all
Click to expand...
I havn't read the case yet, too tired, maybe by the end of the week.

But I was able to look up the legal history behind it, and there is zero cases supporting the decision, with several cases disagreeing with it. Generally speaking this means that while it is the law right now, I would not be suprised at all if it isn't for long.
 
peaceb2usall

peaceb2usall

Well-Known Member

Seriously I love no bs all the information you need type posts such as this +mothafluffin rep yo! :)

specialkayme said:
In one word, that information is ...... "WRONG"

No offense Screwston, and if you would like to quote relevant law, I'd love to see it, but my guess would be that you can't. Wow, I just sounded like a dick, sorry man, I really meant no offense.



4th ammendment baby! teacher always helped me remember this by telling me a story of a cop with no thumb, reaching around my bag (four fingers).

Anyway, the way it works is thus: The security actually just act as if they were the local police officers, they have no more rights to search your stuff or detain you as the normal police do. Normally they have less rights, but that all depends on their classifacation. Some security officers are just joe schmoe, some are licensed PI's, others are actually police officers with renta cop badges, and others are off duty police officers, which it is really ends up helping or hurting you, so to play it safe always treat one as if they were a cop, avoids problems later on.

The cops, or security, only have the right to search your bag if (1) you consent, (2) have probable cause such as drug sniffing dogs, or (3) leave your bag open. There are other ways, but I don't feel like writing a book right now, so I'll move on. If you consent your an idiot, if they have probable cause then your fucked anyway. But if you left one of your zippers open, or slightly, that compartment is fair game, only because they could theoretically look inside that section and see something, it's open to the public, but closed bags are a no go for searches.

Also, if you had mail inside that bag, that is not open for searches, unless they have a warrant. If they searched it, then you can charge them with a number of different offenses. You can talk to a lawyer if you want, but right off the top of my head you have charges for unreasonable detention, unreasonable search, and tresspass to chattels (both your bag, and the mail). If you went to civil court, you could get the cops, and possibly their department and maybe the school, to pay you out a couple of hundred dollars. (Just estimating here, contact a lawyer if you are interested in pursuiting this)

So yeah, I'm baked, so I'm off. Hope that helped.
Click to expand...
 
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