DR. WALLACE: I'm 18 and my boyfriend is 19. We've been dating for over two years and we love each other and plan to be married. The problem is that his family really loved his previous girlfriend and they were upset when he broke things off with her and started dating me. His mother refuses to even talk to me or let her son bring me into their house. He's an only child and what most people would call a "momma's boy." I had hoped he could help patch things up with his mother and me, but he just smiles and says that his mom is a domineering woman, and that "things will work out." I'm not sure they will.

I'm also a dominant personality, and I'm tired of being treated like a second-class citizen or, even worse, a criminal. I called his mother, trying to make peace, but she hung up on me after calling me a terrible name. Now I'm wondering: just how important is it for my boyfriend's mother to accept me? — Nameless, Davenport, Iowa.

NAMELESS: It is extremely important for your boyfriend's mother to accept you, but, of course, this doesn't mean that she must like you. It means that she should at least be respectable and courteous when in your company. It is unconscionable that she would call you a terrible name. Life is too short to be subjected to such abuse. It's your boyfriend's place to smooth things between you and his mother. Tell him that if he can't get her to accept you, you think it would be best to tell him goodbye.

HIDING KNIFE IS NOT A CRIME

DR. WALLACE: I've been reading your column for quite some time, and you always say that school personnel can search a student's locker without permission. What gives them the right to do what I would call an illegal search? Doesn't our Constitution allow teens the right to privacy? The authorities can't search my room in my house without my permission unless they have a legal search warrant. Why don't school personnel need the same thing?

Last semester my boyfriend was suspended with a possibility of being expelled permanently because he had a switchblade knife in his locker. The vice principal, who doesn't like my boyfriend, had said a student told her she'd seen him put it in there during lunch break.

My boyfriend isn't a criminal and wasn't about to commit a crime with it. It's just that he bought the knife a week earlier and was storing it in his locker so his father wouldn't find it. Hiding a knife is not a crime. It is no big deal! — Rosa, Laredo, Tex.

ROSA: Young people who attend public schools do have some right to privacy, but when there's the possibility of danger or disruption of the educational process, the courts allow school officials the freedom to act for the good of the whole student body. They have the authority to search lockers without permission if they suspect a student of breaking the rules. Switchblade knives can be dangerous and lethal weapons and they should never be brought to a school campus — ever! Your boyfriend was well aware that he was in violation of school policy when he brought the switchblade to school. If it was "no big deal," why was your boyfriend hiding it from his father?

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at [email protected]. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.