School & College

Your rights on campus.

Your rights at school and college, explained simply: backpack and locker searches, student free speech, FERPA and your education records, phones at school, and what happens during school discipline. What schools can actually do — and where your rights hold the line.

Searches · 4th Amendment

Can schools search your backpack?

Schools don’t need a warrant — but they do need to pass a two-part test. What counts as “reasonable,” and where searches cross the line.

Read the answer →
Landmark case · 1969

Tinker v. Des Moines: the case that protected student speech

Three teenagers, black armbands, and the Supreme Court ruling that students don’t shed their rights at the schoolhouse gate.

Read the breakdown →
Landmark case · 2014

Riley v. California: the case that protected your phone

Your phone is protected even after an arrest — a ruling that matters on campus too, where phones get confiscated more than anywhere else.

Read the breakdown →
Coming soon

What is FERPA — and who can see your grades?

The federal law guarding your education records, and what your school can share without asking — being written now.

Have a question about school & your rights?

Ask it — the best questions become full articles on this site.

Ask your question →