If you’re a middle or high school student in the Los Angeles Unified School District, you’ve probably been subjected to a “random” metal detector search – and if not, you’ve probably heard about them. Every day, school staff are required to interrupt class and search students and their belongings, even if they have done nothing wrong and there are no safety concerns at the school. This practice, like on-campus policing, is ineffective, intrusive, and excessive, and is applied in a discriminatory fashion against students of color and low-income students. Students aren’t suspects, and policing them undermines their education and damages school morale.

School should be a place where you can feel at home. It should be a space of learning and growth, where educators nurture your developmental needs. When police officers replace school administrators as disciplinarians, the results are often disastrous, especially for students of color, low-income students, and students with disabilities. Police presence on campus contributes to the school-to-prison pipeline that pushes thousands of youth out of the classroom and into the criminal justice system.

It’s important for you to know what your rights are at school and with the police. If you’re a student in California, you have the following rights:

• You have the right to refuse a search conducted by a police officer in your school. Even if you cannot stop the search from happening, you can speak up and say: “I DO NOT WANT YOU TO SEARCH ME.”
• You have the right to remain silent. If a police officer asks you questions, you can refuse to answer and you should ask to have a parent, guardian, or other adult present.
• Police officers must have “reasonable suspicion” to search you. And, under some circumstances, they need even more than that. This means that they have to have a reasonable belief that you broke a law or school rule and that the search would uncover evidence of the violation.
• If school officials or police officers illegally search you, they cannot use what they find against you in court. But your school can use evidence from an illegal search in school disciplinary proceedings.

The bottom line is that student behavior shouldn’t be treated like a crime, and you shouldn’t be treated like a criminal for breaking rules.

Unfortunately, over the past two decades police presence on campus has increased dramatically in California. Right now, over 1.8 million California K-12 students attend schools with a sworn officer assigned to their campus. There are 19 school districts across the state that operate their own police departments, and over 650 full-time sworn officers are assigned to school districts. 

This proliferation of on-campus policing disproportionally harms students of color, low-income students, and students with disabilities. For example, Black and Brown students are far more likely to be targeted for arrest by police for minor misbehaviors. An ACLU study found California students face discrimination based on race, disability and income:

• Black students are three times more likely than white students to be arrested at school. American-Indian students as twice as likely, and Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students are 1.5 times as likely. Latinx students are also arrested at a rate higher than their rate of enrollment in California schools.
• Students with disabilities are three times as likely as students without disabilities to be arrested.
• Schools where over 80 percent of students are low-income have an average arrest rate that is seven times higher than schools where fewer than 20 percent of students are low-income.

In addition to the potential trauma of officer misconduct, giving a student a criminal record for minor, non-violent school violations damages the school environment and can have severe, life-long consequences. A single arrest doubles a high school student’s likelihood to dropout, makes it more difficult for them to get employed, and dramatically increases the chance that they will have future encounters with law enforcement.

If you would like to learn more about what policies your school can adopt to keep police accountable, check out our report The Right to Remain a Student.

Every student deserves to feel safe at school — that means not feeling harassed or targeted by police. The ACLU strongly believes that police should only be called to campus if there is a real and immediate physical threat to student, staff or public safety.  In contrast, when schools turn to the police to deal with commonplace discipline, it harms students by undermining school climate and creating an environment where students are treated as suspects and criminals.

With a new school year comes new experiences, new choices, and new opportunities. One is the opportunity to make sure you and your friends have the information you need to help navigate the different decisions that may come up in your life. Some of the most important decisions you may face are around your reproductive and sexual health, and if you’re a young person in California, you have the rights and resources to get the health care you need.

Under California law, you have the right to birth control, emergency contraception, pregnancy testing, prenatal care, abortion services, and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STDs/STIs). You do not need permission from anyone, including your parents or guardians and your partner. It is your right to get these health services confidentially — the clinic or doctor cannot tell anyone why you were there — unless you say it’s okay. You also can leave school to access these services without getting permission from or telling your parents or guardians.

Here’s a breakdown of the most important things to know about your reproductive health as you start your new year:

Birth Control & Emergency Contraception

Birth control is legal in California for everyone, and no one has to know if you’re using it. Also, no one can force you to use birth control if you don’t want to. You have the right to make your own decisions about using birth control and keep it private.

If you plan to have sex and don’t want to get pregnant, you have choices. There are many different kinds of birth control, from condoms, to the pill, to an IUD. In California, you can get your birth control prescription and have it filled directly by a pharmacist, without going to see a doctor or clinician first. You can buy condoms without a prescription and without any age restriction.

If your condom broke or if you didn’t use any birth control during sex, emergency contraception, sometimes called the morning-after pill, Plan B or EC, can keep you from getting pregnant. Emergency contraception only works during the first five days after having unprotected sex — and the sooner you take it, the more likely it is to work. In California, you can buy most emergency contraception from a pharmacy without a prescription, no matter how old you are.

To find out more about your birth control choices, talk to your doctor, go to a family planning clinic, or reach out to ACCESS, Emergency Contraception, Family PACT or Planned Parenthood for help.

Pregnancy and Your Options

If you think you might be pregnant, it’s your right to get a confidential pregnancy test. If you are pregnant, you have options: you can stay pregnant and become a parent, place the baby for adoption, or end the pregnancy by having an abortion. If you need support in making a decision about your pregnancy, or are unsure of how to pay for care, there are resources that can help — no matter what your decision.

If you decide to become a parent

It’s your right to keep going to school while you’re pregnant and after your baby is born. It’s against the law for schools to treat you differently because you’re pregnant or a parent. You have the right to remain in the same school and participate in all school activities, physical education, school dances and graduate. Some schools have special programs for teen parents. But you do not have to change schools or classes just because you’re pregnant or parenting.

You also have the right to keep your pregnancy private. Your school cannot draw public attention or reveal your pregnancy without your permission. If you have a medical appointment during school hours, your school must let you go to your appointment and cannot notify your parents or try to get your parents’ permission. Likewise, if you or your child are sick, you can be excused from school. Just make sure to tell your school why you’re absent.

If you decide to place the baby for adoption

If you are pregnant and don’t want to have a child or have an abortion, you can place the baby for adoption. Adoption means giving up your legal rights as a parent, as well as your responsibilities. If you didn’t make adoption arrangements and you’re about to give birth, don’t panic. The law allows parents to drop off a newborn baby to a hospital or fire station up to three days after birth, without getting in trouble or having to give their names. To find out more, check out Adoption Connection or PACT.

If you decide to have an abortion

If you want to end your pregnancy, you have the right to get an abortion for any reason until approximately 6 months after you become pregnant. You don’t need anyone’s permission and the law protects your privacy. However, you deserve support from someone who cares about you, like a parent, counselor, or friend. In many parts of California there are abortion doulas, or volunteers, who can go with you to your appointment so you don’t have to go alone. If you need more information, visit Planned Parenthood or ACCESS.

STDs/STIs

It’s your right to get confidential testing and treatment for STIs and HIV. This means you can get tested for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, without getting permission from anyone if you are at least 12. You can also get treated and the clinic or doctor can’t tell your parents or guardians.

You have the right to get tested for STIs during school hours. Go to your school’s office and tell them that you have a confidential medical appointment. They have to let you go — no questions asked. For helpful language on what to say, check out Your Rights at School.

Paying for Sexual Health Services

Most private health insurance plans cover birth control, prenatal care, childbirth, maternity care, abortion care. They also cover STD/STI screening and testing, but they do not have to cover treatment. Check with your insurance provider to see if you are covered.

California also has free or low-cost programs that can help young people pay for this testing and treatment, if you need it. Family PACT is a state program that pays for many sexual and reproductive health services like pregnancy tests, birth control, STI testing and treatment, and counseling. The services are confidential, and you can get them regardless of your age or immigration status. Medi-Cal pays for pregnancy-related health care — including prenatal care, delivery, post-partum care and abortion — if your income is low.

Tell Your Friends

Let your friends know about their reproductive health rights, and help spread the word about all of the different resources available. Our Your Health, Your Rights site is available in both English and Spanish.

If you’re a young person in California, you have rights. If you believe any of your rights are being violated, call the ACLU of Southern California at 213-977-5253 or submit a complaint online.

Know your rights

As students head back to school, we want to make sure they are aware of their rights and know how to defend them. This week, we’re posting a series of blogs reminding students and parents of these important rights. Visit our My School My Rights page for more information.

Ruth Dawson is a reproductive justice staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California.

There are some things you won't be able to avoid when the new school year starts up. Homework. Pop quizzes. Final exams.

But one thing you shouldn’t have to do is let your school search your phone.

Under California law, school officials cannot search your phone, tablet, or laptop unless they have a search warrant, there is a legitimate emergency (like a bomb threat), or you say it’s OK. No snooping through your photos or Facebook feed to see who you dated over the summer. No poking through your text messages and email to see if you've been attending protests or organizing rallies. No looking at your location history to see where you spent your vacation. It's all off limits.

But not everyone sees it that way. School officials who have the authority to search backpacks and lockers may mistakenly believe that extends to your cell phone or laptop as well. Or your school may try to get around the law by trying to convince or force you to sign away your privacy rights.

Before we had strong privacy laws protecting both online information and electronic devices, students had their cell phones seized and searched after videotaping a campus police officer dragging a fellow student by her hair. They were searched simply because they were accused of creating a parody newsletter about their school, which is clearly protected by the First Amendment. One student was forced to allow a teacher to search through several weeks' worth of text messages just because he was late to class.

That shouldn't happen. And our law today prevents it. But we need your help to make sure the law works — and to make sure it stays in place despite efforts by school administrators to change it.

So how can you help?

• If your school tells you they can search your phone any time they have "reasonable suspicion" that you've done something wrong, or if they try to force you to sign away your rights as a condition of fully participating in school activities), they might need a refresher course in your privacy rights. Please let us know and we'll see what we can do. You can call our Intake Line at 213-977-5253 or submit a complaint online.
• We'd also love to learn more about your personal experience with digital searches at school. Please fill out our survey and let us know what you see.
• And, finally, a bill to gut privacy rights for students (AB 165) is stalled but not dead. Sign our petition opposing the bill and make sure lawmakers know how much privacy means to you.

Because going back to school means giving up some things — but not your rights. That's one lesson you can learn and use before you set foot back on campus.

Visit My School My Rights for more resources about your rights in school.

Chris Conley is a technology and civil liberties policy attorney at the ACLU of Northern California.