Here’s some slightly scary food for thought: although we as students of the Seattle Public School District have freedom from unreasonable search and seizure while at school, “unreasonable” has a different definition in school than it does on the street, allowing teachers to do random things like (true story!) confiscate your energy drink and get you in trouble because they, for some reason, think you stealthily put alcohol in there.

“The police have to have probable cause to search. We don’t,” says Lenora Lee, Garfield’s assistant principal.

Though this may sound a little too McCarthyish, be reassured that schools do have to have what is called reasonable suspicion that you graffitied that bathroom wall or smoked that dro. Someone credible must make a report, you must have a history of illegal behavior or you must smell like drugs before they can search you.

When an administrator does perform a search, they can only look in areas of storage that could reasonably fit whatever items they are searching for (although if they happen across any other illicit goods, the student can be charged with an offense pertaining to that as well). The one gray area is our cell phones.

Now technically, we’re not supposed to have these little beauties with us at school, but if that ever stops anyone, it will be the first I’ve heard of it.

The general protocol is for teachers to take phones they see in use and hand them over to the administration. Where the ground gets a little shaky is when teachers decide to get nosy.

There is no rule against teachers looking through a student’s cell phone without reasonable suspicion, though it may violate an unspoken convention of privacy, and this can produce a sticky situation if a teacher finds personal or condemning messages and pictures.

Unfortunately, if teachers accidentally spot something illegal going on in a cell phone picture, they may be obligated to report it, regardless of the fact that it was not discovered in a legitimate search.

“I usually suggest that students just turn their phones off completely,” said Lee. “I would suggest to the teacher that they not do that. That way they don’t cross boundaries.”