VENICE, Calif. -- Classes have just ended at Venice High School. Mya, a junior at the school, is with friends, waiting for her ride.

Their backpacks are loaded down with books and homework.

“I’ve been at Venice for three years and I really like it,” said Mya.

But what she dislikes about Venice and all other Los Angeles Unified School District middle and high schools is a 1990s policy allowing random backpack, locker and metal detector searches.

“It feels like I’m being treated like a criminal, like they don’t trust me,” said Mya.

But that policy could soon change, in part thanks to a UTLA Memorandum of Understanding introduced after the January 2019 teacher’s strike, as well as Mya’s activism in asking Venice High to partake in a pilot program that would exempt 14 schools from the random search policy.

“We worked really hard to get our voices heard by our school,” said Mya.

In the three years Mya has been at Venice High, she has been searched twice, once her backpack and another time her locker.

Only four percent of public schools in the U.S. employ these random search techniques with metal detectors according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

But LAUSD says there is value in the policy and they want it to continue. They sent Spectrum News 1 a statement that read in part:

“We believe the policy is effective as a deterrent for students in bringing weapons to school.”

But Mya questions that assessment.

“Sal Castro still had a shooting, and they had the search policy in place,” she said.

So, what exactly do they find in these searches?

Analysis by the University of California Los Angeles Civil Rights Project on a quarter of LAUSD middle and high schools found that from 2013 to 2015, 34,000 students were searched. According to the report, in that time, 37 knives, 18 pepper sprays and one bb gun were confiscated.

No firearms were found.

But those that support the searches point to the low number of weapons found as evidence of the policy’s success.

Mya says halting the searches will actually help students feels safer.

“Knowing if we do get accepted, not just me but everyone at school will feel safer,” she said.

More than 25 schools applied for the exemption. Later this month, LAUSD will announce the 14 schools that will be accepted into the pilot program.