On appeal, J.G. challenged the constitutionality of the school officials’ search. A Court of Appeals panel, after the U.S. Supreme Court’s precedent, determined reasonable suspicion was not necessary. Instead, if J.G.’s safety plan was still in effect, it was reasonable for J.G. to expect daily searches regardless of the justification.

“We note that the safety plan doesn’t specify a time frame and that it also doesn’t include an expiration date. Thus, we construe the safety plan as remaining effective as long as J.G. attended the same high school,” wrote Judge Craig Welling in June.

While J.G.’s appeal to the state Supreme Court was pending, safety plans came under scrutiny after an East High School student shot two administrators during a routine search pursuant to his own safety plan. The Colorado School District Self Insurance Pool, which includes 134 school districts, told the court that safety plan searches are not aimed at criminal investigation, but are more akin to going through airport security.

“While a safety-plan search for weapons may turn up evidence of criminal conduct, such searches are intended to deter students from bringing weapons to school by alerting the student that the student will be searched,” wrote the organization’s lawyers. “The effectiveness of this deterrence is illustrated by the fact that J.G. brought the handgun to school believing that the search requirement had lapsed.”

Evans, the public defender, maintained no one in Denver Public Schools had told J.G. his safety plan would continue through the next school year, so the lack of notice rendered the search unreasonable. The justices were not so sure.

“This doesn’t feel like ‘gotcha,’ because he had been subject to this protocol the year before,” said Justice William Hood III.

“What evidence is there that he stopped having notice?” added Chief Justice Brian Boatright. “Because he clearly had notice in April, May. ... He assumed it’s a new school year, therefore, I’m free?”

Evans acknowledged that if J.G. had been told about the safety plan’s requirements, he would lose his constitutional challenge. But there is “no evidence in the record about what anybody told J.G.,” he continued.

Senior Assistant Attorney General Melissa Allen, meanwhile, conceded the lack of evidence about any conversations with J.G. She believed the court could nonetheless infer J.G. knew about the safety plan.

Members of the court appeared to agree with her.

“When we’re trying to think about what’s a reasonable rule here, I would think it would be very different if, sometime in November, they suddenly searched him,” said Justice Melissa Hart. “Then I would think it’s to imagine the same safety plan was in place.”

Given that officials at Kennedy resumed their searches within three days of the new school year, she continued, “that seems like a really important, different set of facts.”