St Joseph's School
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St Joseph's School provides a safe learning environment and minimises distractions for our students. We respect the privacy and emotional wellbeing of our school community and protect them from items that are likely to endanger safety, detrimentally affect the learning environment, or are harmful. To achieve this, we may need to request the surrender of items or conduct a search.
Everyone has the right to be protected against unreasonable searches or seizure under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, and the Human Rights Act 1993 protects against discrimination. See Inclusive School Culture. Our school follows the Ministry of Education Guidelines for the surrender and retention of property and searches. Our usual behaviour management strategies apply at all times. An item does not need to be surrendered or retained for us to act on good information. We apply our behaviour management strategies if the student refuses to surrender an item or submit to a search, and consider contacting their parents/caregivers or the police.
This policy applies at school and all Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC) events.
Safety of the community
We understand that our school community and the public expects us to provide an environment free from alcohol and drugs, and weapons. Our school:
Prohibited items include:
Authorisation of staff
The board is responsible for authorising non-teaching staff members to request the surrender of an item or conduct a search. They keep a list of the names and positions of authorised staff members. The list is available for inspection at the school.
At St Joseph's School, the principal, all teachers, and those non-teaching staff who have written authorisation from the board can request the surrender of an item, and retain or dispose of the item.
At St Joseph's School, the principal, all teaching staff, and authorised staff members can conduct searches.
The written authorisation from the board specifies whether the staff member may request the surrender of items and/or conduct searches. The board gives a copy of this authorisation to the authorised staff member. The staff member must let the board know they've received it as soon as practicable. The board can revoke this authorisation at any time.
Item categories
Teachers or authorised staff members can request the surrender of items that they have reasonable grounds to believe:
endanger safetyaffect the learning environmentharmful.They can only search the outer clothing of a student for harmful items. Staff members need to make reasonable judgements about which category an item falls under, if any.
Retention of property
Depending on the item and the circumstances, we retain an item for a period or dispose of it. We take reasonable care of retained items and details are kept of any item retained for two or more school nights. Details include the date, name of student, name of staff member, and any other relevant details.
Other appropriate actions may be taken, including behaviour management, counselling, contact with parents/caregivers, and/or contact with the police.
In most cases, surrendered items are available for collection at the end of the day.
The principal assures the board that all procedures relating to search, surrender, and retention have been followed. The principal confirms that a written record has been kept of all surrenders and searches, and retention of any property held for more than 2 nights. The principal assures the board that authorisation of non-teaching staff is specified in writing, and that staff members receive a copy and acknowledge the receipt in writing. See Review Schedule and Board Assurances.
Release history: Term 1 2024, Term 4 2022, Term 3 2022
