Mariah Foley
Staff Writer

Mike Carrell is a current Washington state senator who is a retired schoolteacher in the general Tacoma/Lakewood area. He prides himself on writing the Becca laws, which help identify at risk youth to save them from their foreseen criminal futures.

If this years Becca bill proposal by senator Mike Carrell is passed, it will allow any schools resource officer to search a student without probable cause.  Called a ‘reasonable-suspicion clause,’ this resolution will dramatically affect juvenile delinquency in an extremely harmful way.

The way the rules are now, a security officer has to actually see an illegal substance, weapon, or activity in order to detain and search a student.  If this law passes, it will become extremely easy for a not-so well-meaning officer to harass a student he/she doesn’t like.

Whether you notice it or not, every student, especially high school levels, are carrying some sort of contraband, whether it’s a pocketknife, a lighter and cigarettes (for underage smokers), a pipe, a porn magazine, a Gatorade bottle filled with alcohol, or whatever. It’s a part of growing up.

Some high school students don’t have time or even a place to drop their ‘valuables’ before going to school, and most don’t even think about them in the 5-minute time period they have to run to their next class.

When high school students take illegal items to school, it’s usually for plans they have after school. Honestly, most teenagers don’t actually plan on stabbing everyone when they forget to take their pocketknives out of yesterday’s jeans.

I can definitely understand taking someone’s things away if they can be harmful to others, but going out of ones way to search a person for something incriminating is just wrong.