Parent warns board that vape-sensor policy leads to group bathroom searches, urges parental notice and policy change

Rebecca Peterson, a Raritan Township parent, used the public-comment period to ask the board to revisit the district’s handling of vape sensors and student searches under policy 5770. She said sensors introduced during the 2022–23 school year have led to repeated searches that sweep entire bathrooms and classrooms, at times subjecting more than 20 students to searches for one incident, and that administrators are not following policy provisions calling for searches, when possible, to occur with the principal and parents present.

Peterson said the district frequently conducts broad searches "many to catch a few," and that practice harms students’ mental health, wastes instructional time and teaches students they are presumed guilty. She asked the board to require administrators to rely first on observation and less-intrusive investigative steps, to narrow suspect pools before searches, and to notify parents in advance where feasible. "Students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse door," she said.

Board members indicated the policy had been updated in May and that the administration had discussed it with the board; the speaker said the update was not being followed in practice. No formal administrative response or change was announced at the meeting; the public comment prompted board members to note the issue for follow-up and to encourage parents to report concerns through the superintendent's office.