Posted on 03/31/2008 2:56:03 PM PDT by kingattax
Case Pits Students' Privacy Rights vs. Need to Keep Drugs, Weapons Out of Schools --
A student strip-searched for drugs when she was in eighth grade took her case to a federal appeals court on Wednesday, arguing through a lawyer that school officials had violated her constitutional rights by overzealously enforcing a strict policy against alcohol, narcotics – and, in her case, Ibuprofen.
Savana Redding says she was "confused" and "ashamed" after the officials in Safford, Ariz., suspected her in 2003 of giving other students prescription Ibuprofen pills and ordered her to expose her breasts and pelvic area during a search in the school nurse's office. She denied having any pills, and none were found. Her mother later filed on her behalf a federal lawsuit claiming the search was unreasonable and therefore illegal.
"A strip search, particularly of an adolescent, is a grave invasion of privacy and should be reserved for emergency situations," Andrew Petersen, one of Redding's lawyers, said in a written statement. "The misguided actions of these school officials must not become the status quo in our nation's schools."
But a lawyer for the school district insisted that there were ample grounds for the search.
"When it comes to drugs and weapons," Matthew Wright said, "school districts just can't take the chance of not going forward and being sure."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
if someone had ever tried to strip search me in school there would have been quite a bit of blood on the floor and not mine.
I hope she wins a fortune.
I’ve told my young relatives in such a case do anything they can to get to a phone call 911 and say “I’m a child and the bad people are trying to make me take my clothes off please help me.”
*&**in scumbags like this school lawyer will be be the death of public schools.
Same here, I was a rowdy child and it would have been a riot.
By the time it was over, school would have been canceled for the remainder of the day.
First, I hope she gets bankrupts the schools over this one.
Secondly, this is the mentality of the people teaching your kids. If you care anything about your kids or your grandkids, get them out of the public schools.
Strip Searchers: One more reason government schools resemble prisons.
Also...Strip Searches are merely away to train children to be good prisoners of the state.
One of these things is not like the other
One of these things just isn't the same
(yes I know Ibuprofen is a drug, but it is not a RECREATIONAL drug).
I think it’s an excellent way to get youngsters used to a police state and respect absolute authority.
I think it would be a good way to get the kids to resent authority.
If I were her father, I would be on my way to that school with a tire iron and a baseball bat. Go time!
“I hope she wins a fortune.”
I do, too! Idiotic ISD rules. The investigator was probably a pedophile. Where were her parents during all this? I would own ‘em if they did this to my daughter.
Another true example: An honor student and high school baseball player, whose parents are police officers, had to take his mother’s car to school because his wouldn’t start. During a sweep of the school’s parking lot, a security officer discovered a wooden police baton under the front seat.
The student was yanked out of class and accused of carrting a deadly waepon on campus, and was expelled pending a hearing that would have sent him to “alternative education” for the remainder of the school year.
Apparently, the 18” wooden baton was a deadly weapon - and the four 33” aluminum baseball bats on the back seat of the car were not. The issue was eventually thrown out, but only after an exhaustive legal battle.
Ahhh, the beauty and insanity of zero tolerance policies and ISD administrators.
Here is another 'rotten, smart a$$ed punk' annoying your beloved jack booted thugs.
Maybe you better get over here and rant about tell everyone how stupid they are for taking her side and insulting Duly Constituted Authority.
"When it comes to blind baseless fear of drugs not much stronger than aspirin and weapons [red herring, no weapons alleged]," Matthew Wright said, "school districts just can't take the chance of not going forward and being sure esp. if it lets you strip a teen girl naked."
Do this to my daughter, you f###s, and [self-censored] And not cleanly, either! Think I'm over-reacting? There is no such thing as far as I'm concerned if you sexually molest my daughter, which is what I consider this. At the very least, there need to be CRIMINAL charges filed, not just a civil lawsuit!!!
PS Try that in Texas, you pukes. I DARE YOU!!!
Such staggering, brazen fascism.
Considering how perverted school employees are, a child should be given a cell phone and call 911 and report they are being sexually assualted.
Schools shouldn’t do anything of this nature until a parent/guardian is present to make decisions for the child. Legally a child cannot consent to be searched (or anything), so asking for permission to search is not a legitimate defense for the school district.
However, the parents probably signed a blanket release form when they enrolled the child, so they probably gave a form of consent, which is typical.
Also, if a student is suspected of possessing drugs or a weapon, that is a matter for the police, not the school.
We need to use the strength of Free Republic to do something about this other than bluster and carp. My proposal: Suggest to you state legislators that they pass a new law:
Whereas “zero tolerance policies” are out of control;
Whereas those policies are grossly unfair and serve only to create an adverse view of authority on the part of minors;
Whereas strip searching of a minor is uncalled for except in the most extreme circumstances;
Whereas policies that permit strip searching create an incentive for pedophiles to work in schools; and
Whereas some school administrators have shown abysmal lack of judgment, up to and including strip searching minors for suspected possession of legal pharmaceuticals such as aspirin and advil, the following shall be entered in the criminal code:
The strip searching of any minor by any school official, school empoloyee, contractor, security guard, police officer, or any other person for suspected possession by a minor on school grounds of legal pharmaceuticals shall be deemed gross sexual imposition upon a minor (or the relevant legal term in your state) and shall be prosecuted as such.
Upon the occurence of such an act, any principal, school administrator, or school board member who instituted, enforced, or otherwise facilitated any policy that permitted or encouraged the act shall be prosecuted as an accomplice to the crime of gross sexual imposition upon a minor (again, replace with relevant legal term in you state).
These school administrators love their zero tolerance policies. Let’s nail them with one with CRIMINAL teeth. They are apparently too stupid to learn and think on their own, so let’s FORCE them to. Thousands of letter (preferably) or e-mails asking for this law WILL have an impact.
Why do you think many schools are trying to ban use/possession of cell phones by students? Hint: It's to protect their own skins, not the kids'.
I was too ashamed to say anything - one kid was kind enough to give me his towel
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