Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Faculty Development Julian Ku was quoted in the following Newsday article.

Experts: Schools have broad rights to search students
By Joie Tyrrell
February 16, 2009

EXCERPT:
Students have a very diminished expectation of privacy when they are in school, and if a security dog detects something suspicious in their backpacks or lockers, they can be searched, legal experts said.

School officials have much broader discretion than police to search students pursuant to their needs to manage the school, said Julian Ku, law professor at Hofstra Law School.

"Ordinarily, you would need probable cause to do this if you were a police officer, but this is not a search for criminal purposes," Ku said. "A policeman would have much stricter rules to comply with."