5D05-1392 C.N.H. v.State

State: Florida

Court: Florida Fifth District Court

Docket No: 5D05-1392

Case Date: 02/13/2006

Preview:IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA FIFTH DISTRICT JANUARY TERM 2006

C.N.H., A CHILD, Appellant, v. STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellee. __________________________/ Opinion filed February 17, 2006 Appeal from the Circuit Court for Osceola County, Jon B. Morgan, Judge James B. Gibson, Public Defender, and David S. Morgan, Assistant Public Defender, Daytona Beach, for Appellant. Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Mary G. Jolley, Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, for Appellee. SHARP, W., J. C.N.H. appeals 1 an order of disposition placing her on probation after the trial court denied her ore tenus motion to suppress evidence when a routine suspicionless search of her purse at the alternative school she attended revealed a knife. In denying the motion the trial court determined that the suspicionless search was a proper Case No. 5D05-1392

administrative search. C.N.H. entered a plea of no contest to one charge of possession of a weapon on school property. She argues on appeal that the search of her person and possessions violated her constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. We disagree and affirm. C.N.H. was a student at Cornerstone Complex (Cornerstone), also known as "New Beginnings," an alternative middle school. Alternative schools are not the equivalent of regular public schools. 2 Rather, alternative schools are "wake-up"

schools; they are "high risk" schools. Students are sent to alternative schools before they are actually confined and in lieu of being confined. Virtually all of the children attending Cornerstone are court-ordered to do so, and thus are not eligible to attend a regular public school. Cornerstone has a policy of conducting daily suspicionless pat-down searches of every student every morning before they are permitted to go to their classes. Female students have their purses searched as well. The students are well aware that they will be searched daily. The school has adopted this policy, because as an alternative school, the nature of its student population differs markedly from that of a regular school, and it is necessary for school personnel to look for weapons, drugs and similar items to prevent them from entering the school, and to ensure the safety of the students and Cornerstone's personnel. The searches are conducted to deter students from

bringing drugs and weapons into the school.

C.N.H. reserved her right to appeal, and the trial court found that the issue on the motion to suppress was dispositive, with the state agreeing. Hicks v. State, 915 So. 2d 740 (Fla. 5th DCA 2005); Fla. R. App. P. 9.140(b)(2)(A). 2 See

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