An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law

Chapter 10 - Privacy Rights Of Students And Employees

United States v. Bunkers, 1737 : Employer Rules and Policy Can Diminish Expectation of Privacy Employees’ reasonable expectations of privacy can be diminished by the employer’s rules and policies regarding the privacy of specified areas. Therefore, it is advisable that employers clearly indicate in their policies that they maintain the right to search employees’ offices, desks, and files. In Bunkers , the court, relying upon existing postal regulations allowing locker searches, found searches of employee lockers permissible. United States v. Ziegler, 1738 : Employer Had Common Authority Over Employee Computer and Could Consent To Its Search by Law Enforcement The Ninth Circuit held that although an employee had a subjective expectation of privacy in his office and workplace computer because the office was not shared with other employees and was kept locked, his Fourth Amendment rights were not violated when his employer consented to a warrantless search of the contents of his workplace computer during an FBI child pornography investigation. The employer exercised common authority over the computer and could consent to its search because it had complete administrative access to all computers, it had installed a firewall to monitor internet traffic, and it apprised all employees through training and its employment manual of the monitoring and that computers were not used for personal activities.  Retain a key or combination for each locker, desk or vehicle on school property and notify the employees of this fact. Make sure any lock on school property is owned and supplied by the employer and forbid employees to use their own locks.  Provide formal notice to employees that lockers, desks and vehicles may be searched without employee consent or knowledge and that refusal to permit such searches may result in discipline.  Prepare a written policy concerning searches and have each employee sign a written acknowledgment stating that the employee has received and read the written search policy.  Conduct searches in an evenhanded and nondiscriminatory manner.  If possible, obtain consent of the employee before conducting the search.

1. G UIDELINES F OR C ONDUCTING W ORKPLACE S EARCHES :

2. S EARCHING A N E MPLOYEE ’ S P ERSON O R P ERSONAL P OSSESSIONS Searching employees and their possessions is normally a function of law enforcement. Employer searches are fraught with potential hazards that can ultimately result in sizeable damage awards in favor of employees. Even where an employer has reasonable suspicion or probable cause to believe that an employee might have an item or a substance prohibited by law or policy in his or

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