In re Christian R. CA4/3

Introduction A Santa Ana police officer, serving as the school resource officer at Santa Ana High School, searched the backpack of student Christian R. (the Minor) and found inside a black ink permanent marker and “slap tags” (adhesive stickers used for graffiti). After denying the Minor’s motion to suppress this evidence, the juvenile court found to be true beyond a reasonable doubt allegations that the Minor was in possession of graffiti tools in violation of Penal Code section 594.2, subdivision (a) and declared the Minor to be a ward of the court. The Minor appeals from the dispositional order. He argues the juvenile court erred by denying his motion to suppress because the police officer did not have reasonable suspicion to search his backpack. We disagree and affirm.

2. Facts On February 22, 2012, Edward Rios, a substitute district safety officer at Santa Ana High School, noticed “some type of graffiti” on the Minor’s backpack. Rios believed he had seen the letters “D-O-E” on the backpack and remembered seeing graffiti or “slap tags” around the school campus with the words “DOE” or “DOE KRU.” A slap tag is a sticker or adhesive label that “taggers” use to quickly put up…