Car and locker searches are something that most students realize the school has power to do, but not many students realize why. Thanks to Alaska statute 14.03.105, found inside the student handbook, at Dimond High School administration has the authority to search any student’s locker, car and anything found inside. Contrary to belief, simply refusing to unlock your car does not exempt a student from any kind of search. If students refuse to open their door for an administrator, parents will be called followed by police who would arrive shortly with a search warrant. A short interview with Dimond Assistant Principal Kevin Theonnes shed some light on the subject. Theonnes calls locker searches “purely random,” but every so often people will phone in suspicious activity that may lead to a bank of lockers being searched. “No administrator wakes up in the morning hoping to bust some kids,” Theonnes said. “Random searching is meant to maintain the safety and security of students at school. If students realize the school has the power to search their belongings, they are far less likely to bring things to school that they shouldn’t.” Theonnes, as the principal in charge of discipline, is most often the administrator to run car and locker searches, although any administrator has the authority to. “I don’t work with the freshmen, though” Theonnes says. “Mr. [Dale] Evern is in charge of them.” So what did Evern have to say about the subject? Evern said that car and locker searches were necessary simply to “prevent kids from bringing things to school that they shouldn’t.”’ When performing a locker search, Evern let it be known that he searches through everything. So, if there’s something bad in a locker, even if it’s well hidden, it should probably be taken out. Evern, speaking on car and locker searches, said that searches can be done at any time including school dances. “People want to bring a lot of weed to dances for some reason,” he said, “and we find a lot of it.” Conclusively, car and locker searches are not uncommon at Dimond High. If students want to have things they should not have, those things should be left at home.