In 2011, the Los Angeles Unified School District established a policy requiring schools to subject students at its 200 middle and high schools to daily “random searches.” School administrators pull kids out of class, search them with a handheld metal detector wand, and go through their bags and belongings looking for “contraband.”
On Tuesday, after years of protest from parents, students, community groups, and others concerned about the practice, the LAUSD Board of Education voted to eliminate the controversial random searches.
The resolution, “Successful School Climate: Safe, Respectful, and Learning for All” requires schools to phase out the “flawed and ineffective” and “dehumanizing” practice by July 2020. After next July, the district will only allow “individualized searches conducted by well-trained personnel when there is reasonable suspicion.” The resolution also calls for the district to ensure “that any alternative policy does not include an increase in police presence or police surveillance practices,” and that “any alternative policy is rooted in evidence-based research and practices.”
According to data UCLA Civil Rights Project researchers collected, the way LAUSD random wand searches are currently conducted disrupts learning and is not actually all that “random.”
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