Do school lockers have a Fourth Amendment expectation of privacy?

• A. Yes
• B. No
• C. Only with consent
• D. Only with a warrant

Answer: (A)

In a school setting, students retain a privacy interest in their belongings, including lockers, even though that interest is reduced by the school's obligations to maintain safety and order. The Fourth Amendment applies to searches by public school officials, but a search of a locker is permissible if it’s justified at inception and reasonably related in scope to the objective, based on reasonable suspicion rather than probable cause. This means lockers aren’t immune from search, but they aren’t open invitations either—the school must have a legitimate reason and the search must be reasonable in relation to that reason. It’s not necessary to have consent or a warrant for such a search, though consent would remove the privacy interest, and a blanket or highly intrusive search without suspension would likely be improper.