Posted on 03/21/2002 6:26:53 PM PST by moyden
Principal, teacher removed from Pitcher Elementary while district investigates alleged strip search
By JOE ROBERTSON and DEANN SMITH The Kansas City Star
The principal and a teacher have been removed from Pitcher Elementary School while the Kansas City School District investigates allegations that third-graders were subjected to an improper search, district spokesman Edwin Birch said today.
The principal is Jana Schwimmer. The teacher was not identified.
Parents and students at Pitcher met this morning with a state investigator and school district attorneys to discuss the alleged strip search over $5 of missing money.
"The district has to investigate these allegations," Birch said. "We wanted to reassure them (the parents and students) that we want to do the right thing."
The state also must investigate, he said, which is why an investigator with the Missouri Division of Family Services joined the meeting.
Parents have complained that children told them earlier this week that boys had to drop their pants to be searched by an adult male, while girls were searched by other girls.
District policy does not allow strip searches and specifies that any other search cannot be done in front of other students.
Superintendent Bernard Taylor Jr. hired Schwimmer as principal at Pitcher last summer. Taylor and district attorneys briefed school board members about the incident in a closed session Tuesday.
Taylor sent letters home to some Pitcher parents Tuesday, saying that investigators may ask to talk to their children to get eyewitness accounts of a "disturbing report that students...may have been subjected to an improper search of their persons."
The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has no policy on strip searches and instead allows local school boards to set their own policies, said Kris Morrow, an attorney for the department.
"If a district is even thinking of doing a strip search, we tell them to be sure and contact their school district attorney," Morrow said. "Because of the invasive nature of the search, strip searches can be a litigation mine field."
And quite often a pedophile.
What kind of people would traumatize children over five bucks?
This story has been all local talk radio the last couple of days. The principal didn't know about the strip searches until they were over but she was in charge of the school. There were, according to one caller, three teachers were involved. Not one spoke up against doing the search. Publish all names involved and fire them.
This story was buried in the Kansas City (Red) Star (Pravda) today. I bought a copy because I needed it to wrap some things for storage.
http://www.kcmsd.k12.mo.us/schools.asp?b=28&id=77
http://www.kcmsd.k12.mo.us/schlrpt/rcpitcher.pdf
This is their "contacts" link, it seems to be disabled......
http://www.kcmsd.k12.mo.us/scripts/roll2.js
The employee list seems to be disabled also....
http://www.kcmsd.k12.mo.us/staff.asp?b=15
An interesting tidbit here, they seem to be a bit short of the mark. This is from one of their own webpages... ( http://www.kcmsd.k12.mo.us/staff.asp?b=8&d=&id=5&catid=&detail=3 )
"The Superintendent has asked for help in turning the District
around. He is creating an External Program Review Panel made
up of fifteen urban superintendents from around the country. The
panel is making plans to come to Kansas City next month to
help District leaders with reform efforts.
The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary
Education will look at the new administration’s action plan as
part of a re-review on the District’s accreditation status. The
re-review is scheduled for October, when scores from the
Missouri Assessment Program are available.
"We plan to show state leaders we are on the right track. The
Kansas City, Missouri School District will become a
high-achieving school system of which this city and state can be
proud," Dr. Taylor said."
Hummmmmm.
"Children." Note the plural. Could even a police officer - hearing a report of $5 missing, without any alleged suspect - order everyone in the area to undergo a strip search?
Parents of kids in other incidents have successfully sued school districts as well as teachers. These parents need to contact the Rutherford Institute; it has successfully represented many victims of government schools in abuses like this.
Finally, anyone ever hear of a case like this in a nongovernment school?
Yesterday I attended the "Newcomer's Awareness Orientation" for my local school district. I'm trying to become a teacher to infect the school system and provide at least one voice of reason in so much irrational madness. The person in charge of this little seminar is my county's foremost school board investigator, the guy who gets called whenever someone has a dispute with a school in the county that simply cannot be resolved.
This person cautioned everyone there in the STRONGEST possible terms about having the slightest physical contact with students. He went on to relate a few horror stories, such as the teacher charged with ASSAULT for putting her arm around a child and forcibly moving her in order to keep her from being HIT BY A BUS.
And then THESE f**king IDIOTS go and strip search a bunch of kids. And, in the same gesture, cost taxpayers a huge amount of money and make some lawyers very rich. Everyone involved with this lunacy should be fired, immediately. I can't imagine what was going through the minds of these adults when they came up with this fantastic idea. Because I have a hard time imagining NOTHING.
The Wall Street Journal is much better for wrapping things. The pages are larger, thicker, and arranged in only three sections (unless there is a bonus special section) so it's easier to use. And there are no annoying advertising inserts. Of course it costs twice as much, but there is actually news in it as well. ;-)
The board spends most of it's time squabbling, firing superintendents, and trying to figure out how to keep the state from revoking it's accreditation.
It is a fine example of racial politics at it's very best.
| Female teachers 'forcibly cut teenage boy's hair' |
A 14-year-old boy says two women at his Florida school forcibly cut his hair after telling him it was too long.
He says the pair - a teacher and a teaching assistant - summoned him to an empty room before forcing him on to the floor.
He says they put the hair in the bin after cutting several inches off with scissors. His family is threatening to sue.
He told the St Petersburg Times he was screaming: "Don't cut it, don't cut it."
He added: "They had two handfuls of my hair. They put it in the garbage can."
His parents have told Hillsborough school officials they intend to sue the education authority for allegedly allowing the pair to cut his hair without parental permission.
They claim he was emotionally traumatised.
"This is really outrageous conduct," the family's lawyer Alan Sandler said. He said his client is now letting his hair grow.
He described the boy as a "thin little guy." He added: "He's not small, but he's not muscular."
A school spokesman says officials are investigating the incident. The school system has six months to respond to the claim. The education authority has no specific hair style policy.
Story filed: 17:26 Friday 22nd March 2002
Oh, come on, they're public school teachers and principals. They think they OWN those children.
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