With the increased violence in schools that has not only afflicted the United States, but has also struck Robinson students at home during the lockdown of the 2021-2022 school year, many feel that there is need for increased security in public schools. As of Sept. 8, 2022, Hillsborough County Superintendent Addison Davis announced the reinstitution of random searches of middle and high school students for the 2022-2023 school year. 

“A few classrooms at each school will be randomly chosen and all students in those classrooms will be part of the search,” Davis said in an email to Hillsborough County parents and guardians. “The search will require students to walk through a standup metal detection device or security officers will use a handheld wand similar to the ones you see at the airport or a large gathering such as a sporting event or concert.”

While the email does mention metal detectors and handheld wands, many of these changes won’t be coming to RHS. 

“I don’t think [the institution of infrastructure is] the case right now. I think right now they’re just doing random [searches], where they’re just picking a school to visit randomly each day…we have 222 school sites, so they can’t be at all of them,” Principal David Brown said. 

With the searching of student belongings, this brings to question whether this would violate the fourth amendment rights (rights protecting citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government) of the student body. 

“If the teacher just searches the student’s backpack for no [good] reason, then yes [it would be a violation of their fourth amendment rights],” Rocco Guida Lleras (’24) said. “However, if the student was accused of having a weapon on campus then it would not be a [violation] as they are doing it to keep everyone safe.”

Another aspect of this that must be considered is the effectiveness that these random searches will have on preventing future threats to student safety. 

“It’s all about deterrence. It’s not so much about a ‘got you’ or a ‘caught you,’ it’s about getting students to understand that we are doing this and to leave your [non-essential] stuff at home,” Brown said.