Removing what little privacy is given to you in school by allowing unwarranted locker searches doesn't bring much comfort. It shatters your sense of privacy and adds a sense of anxiety to an already difficult environment. The hard truth, however, is that something like this must be done to safeguard our health and welfare. So while it might destroy our expectations surrounding privacy, it seems to be a necessary evil to ensure that our schools are kept safe and provide an environment conducive to learning and development.

The statute as it stands under Chapter 19, the Department of Education's administrative rules governing student conduct and discipline, specifically says that students' expectations of privacy extend to their own personal effects as well as property used by them, but owned by the school. It also forbids random searches, is nondiscriminatory and requires that the student must know why they are being searched. The crux is that, in order to actually search a student's property, there must be reasonable cause.

The Board of Education's decision to amend the rules to allow locker searches "anytime with or without cause, provided that such a search is not because of the student's race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex (including gender identity and expression), religion, disability or sexual orientation" was lauded by parents concerned about safety. And that's understandable. But for those actually affected — the students — it suddenly puts your property under scrutiny. Add to that an expanded drug-sniffing-dog program and it makes us feel as though we are suspects, even if completely innocent.

But the upside is clear and compelling. It helps keep students safe from illegal substances or possible attacks. Schools should be safe havens, and unfortunately that's not always the case. Just last year at my high school, someone brought an automatic weapon to campus. It was sheer luck that led to the weapon being seized.

Schools are responsible for keeping students and teachers safe and these searches can be a powerful deterrent. They can happen at any time, and it's that unpredictability that will make students think twice about what they bring to school. Even if the use of drugs by students is on the decline, this would push it down further, uncover those remaining drug users and allow them to receive as much help as possible.

I understand the discomfort with these searches, despite all the benefits. A search allows for me to suddenly be known in intimate detail. A locker can be a window into your life. What classes and your interests in life can be determined in your books, your priorities in little reminders on your locker door, who you go out with in a picture inside — all suddenly viewable.

But ultimately, the concept of safety by enforcement is what is going to win out. Parents are far too concerned for their children's health and well-being not to do all that they can to protect kids on campus.

Communication is key to making this work. The searches should be conducted exactly as they are outlined in Chapter 19, with the student being notified of the search, the search being of a nondiscriminatory nature, and, as much as possible, to be a search with reasonable suspicion. Those who have nothing to fear will not be affected much by this, as they have nothing incriminating and can rest assured that if inspected they will be fine. But to all students, including myself, we have lost a sense of privacy in order to be safe. It's worth it, if it means we won't have to worry about drugs and violence at the place where we're supposed to learn and grow. Sometimes opening the door to allow entrance into our lives is all part of growing up.

Jonathan Banasihan, a 2007 graduate of Waipahu High School, is a student at a college in Pennsylvania and a former member of The Advertiser's Teen Editorial Board. He wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.