NO TRESPASSING signs around public schools. Is this becoming the norm now???

[TrpnBils]

Third new school this year that I didn't even turn my detector on at because it was surrounded by No Trespassing signs at the head of the driveway and just about everywhere else a person could access it. Certainly a no-go for detecting, but I always thought that "public" school meant "public" property.

 

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[pong12211]

I agree with you it should be public property. But they will say it's a saftey issue and that unfortunatley will be the end of that discussion.

 

[jeff of pa]

911, School Shootings & Paranoia being fed to the Population through the media.
many of these places can be accessed by going to the District office,
politely telling them what you do & asking permission.
After the School season closes.

or catching a grounds keeper on site.

but not as likely during the school season

 

[Rodbuster209]

Been that way here for years, even though they open for soccer leagues which totally destroy the grass.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Blame our litigious society.

The schools have to prove they made an attempt at security so a parent who's kid was grabbed by a spouse without legal custody or the surviving family of a shooting victim has less chance of suing the district for millions for not preventing the crime.

They also have to post it so they can ask drug peddlers and pedophiles to leave the school grounds.

 

[mikeraydj]

I only hunt schools after the kids go on summer break. I have only had a problem twice. When a old guy was walking his dog in a park, chewed me out for using a Geiger counter, and when a lady busy body called the cops to say a transient was tearing up the park. The cops agreed I was doing nothing wrong. Didn't know transients carried metal detectors these days. Now I know why they stand at Walmart with signs. So they can get money for batteries.

 

[TrpnBils]

Didn't know transients carried metal detectors these days. Now I know why they stand at Walmart with signs. So they can get money for batteries.

Yes, but just think with a detector how much of an up he'd have on his regular panhandling buddies. "I get money out of the ground, man!"

 

[Tom_in_CA]

I'm old enough (53) to remember when public school yards weren't fenced. They used to just be the after-school defacto parks, where you could go to use the monkey bars, jog the track, shoot hoops, etc... But along about the mid to late 1970s, the fences began to appear.

It's exactly as NY Charlie says: Nothing to do with md'ing per-se, but everything to do with legal stuff. Example: A young couple had taken their toddler to an elementary school in the Los Angeles basin during the afterschool hours, to the tot-lot. They were pushing the toddler down the slide. The toddler falls off the side, and is greviously injured (broke his neck or something). The parents sue the school AND WIN !! Can you believe that ? Well guess what happens next? All the schools around the entire southern CA area get fences around the schools.

However, with all that said, the signs too are .... uh .... "obligatory". You know the boiler plate stuff about "visitors check in at the office" or "no trespassing, permission to pass revokable, private", etc....

I'm not sure about the rest of the USA, but here where I'm at, there's always still a propped open gate, and ..... despite the ominous signs, persons still use the school yard after hours (walk their dog, fly a kite, etc...). So I'm of the opinion that the signs and fences are there to deflect lawsuits, or to usher you on if you were *really* being a nuisance of some sort.

I can't speak for the ones that are truly buttoned up like Ft. Knox (with no entry points). But if I see that others can and do routinely go in for other purposes, then I will consider myself just as innocuous as them.

 

[FreeBirdTim]

My tax dollars pay for that school, so I am free to use the grounds after school hours. Sorry, but no trespassing signs mean squat on public property.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Charlies Helpful Hint # 87 - carry an old rusty razor blade in your finds pouch.

I do detect schools on the weekends if they are not posted and the gate is open. Usually the sub-urban or rural ones. If someone asks what I am doing I am polite; and when I show them what I have found . . .

I've never actually been stopped or questioned at a school. I stay well clear of the groomed baseball diamonds and playing fields. The maintenance crew might take offense to having their important spots dug up. One that I detect is a former school that is now used by the State Police. And I suspect I'm not the first as it yields almost nothing.

 

[FreeBirdTim]

Weekends, school holidays and summer vacation are all open season for schools.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

reply

Weekends, school holidays and summer vacation are all open season for schools.

What ?? Even if they have an obligatory "no trespassing sign" ? How can you be so evil ? This is worse than clubbing baby seals or robbing banks. Repent now before it's too late !

 

[MUD(S.W.A.T)]

If someone tells you you're trespassing, tell them you're not... You're a tax payer, you're part owner !!

Keep @ it and HH !!

 

[TrpnBils]

Good points Tom. No trespassing issues are what the school district considers to be trespassing. If gates are left open and people use the grounds after normal hours it is a good indication of what they do not restrict.

This place I was at yesterday (Sunday) was wide open, except for the fence around the track area. The school itself had a fence (no gate) out front by the driveway with signs posted on it...no trespassing, no dog-walking, "This is not a public playground area". I agree things are different if there's a locked (or closed) gate, but I actually pulled right into the parking lot next to the area I was intending to detect and sat there for about 10 minutes weighing my options before I decided to leave (which sucked because I had driven 45 minutes to get there, then drove another 45 minutes to get to a different town to do some curb strip hunting, then 45 minutes back home all for about 85 cents).....

 

[MUD(S.W.A.T)]

Haha,

Reminds me of a story that happened to me. So detecting in a school ball field this guy come up to us. He starts talking about how he works there and we should not be doing this and he's not going to take it. Blah, blah, blah... Now I get mad when people disrupt me from doing this to tell me these things. They don't think I should be doing it.. When the truth is, in most public places if there is no ordinance written about it. We have every right to search on public property as long as we return it to its original condition. They have no right to tell us otherwise, that's the way it should work... Anyway turns out this guy stunk of alcohol and I got even more mad, and just ignored what he said. (If you don't know public intoxication at a school is a serious crime in some states)

Keep @ it and HH !!

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Suggest some here do some research on the distinctions between public property, public use, equal access, limited purpose usage, public forum and municipal (or school district) property. Just because taxes may have paid for something does not grant you free access to it.

A city may own an airport, so the public has financed it partially with taxes (or not) - just try detecting and digging out a quarter on the median strip beside the runway. Cities can own golf courses, parking facilities, marinas, and ALL can have restrictions on hours of access and charge fees for usage.

BUT - you can use something until someone says you can't. Is that the right way? No.

The only permission you need is from the person who might call in the complaint to the police/sheriff. And even if you ask one person in a building it doesn't mean someone else may not ask you to leave or call in the constables. The Mayor may tell you it is OK to dig on the City Hall front lawn; but if there is an ordinance against it - he/she is wrong and lacks the authority to say otherwise.

AND - even with free public access - if you find a quarter you are obligated to allow all citizens equal access to that quarter; and the best way to ensure that is to leave it where it was found. They hit me with that one at a local State Park.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

.... Just because taxes may have paid for something does not grant you free access to it......

Correct. An in addition to your airport example, let's add things like post office lobbies. They're "public", right ? Yet I'll bet if you enter in after hours by prying open a window to gain entry, that you'd have "trespassing" charges against you. Right ? And the library staff-only back rooms, are not open to library patrons. Examples are endless.

But I still say: "so what ?" In the question at hand here, if others can and routinely do access the school yard for dog walking, jog, chinups, basketball, etc..., (ie.: no one cares), then ....... you and I can dissect the legalities till we're blue in the face. And you may in fact be right, that we're not allowed to stand there, detect, etc.... But the same can be said of those other persons there too.

Bottom line is: A lot of the questions that arise on where we can legal detect , I put into context of "who really cares?" rather than "what can the law be made to say, if I dissected deeply enough?"

 

[Tom_in_CA]

But if someone says it is our duty to sleuth deeply enough, and make no rationalizations "just because others trespass" (those horrible joggers and dog-walkers!). Ok, sure. If everyone jumps off a bridge "doesn't make it right".

But why stop there then ? If sleuthing deeply enough to find laws that *technically* do in fact forbid us, then why stop there? How about lost & found laws that say you can't keep that ring ? How about IRS laws that you ignored when you failed to add in your clad totals to your income ? How about laws requiring you to inquire of the utility company before any digging ? (to make sure you don't hurt underground utilities which *might* be buried there). The list is endless.

I'm not saying to "throw caution to the wind" and blatantly "break laws". I'm just saying that sometimes we md'rs make this more difficult than it is, worry too much, etc....

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Bottom line - be courteous, fill your holes, look "safe" and wave at the folks wearing ties or dresses.

You're always going to have the miserable fussbudgets who can't abide anyone else having fun unmolested.

 

[CincinnatiKid]

I've predominantly been the woods for a year, so I haven't noticed.
This I do know, the HS I attended was razed 3yrs ago. A new HS was built and opened this year. Nothing like the old school. The place is a fortress, with metal detectors at EVERY entrance. Damn shame! I get it though... Kids carry these days. Back in my day
if a serious problem showed, a good ole' fistfight ensued. And most likely, the combatants would be hanging out together at the following weekends house party. Ahh, those were the days...
Peace ✌