Posted on 04/02/2008 3:39:20 PM PDT by neverdem
There are two kinds of people in the world: the kind who think it's perfectly reasonable to strip-search a 13-year-old girl suspected of bringing ibuprofen to school, and the kind who think those people should be kept as far away from children as possible. The first group includes officials at Safford Middle School in Safford, Arizona, who in 2003 forced eighth-grader Savana Redding to prove she was not concealing Advil in her crotch or cleavage.
It also includes two judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, who last fall ruled that the strip search did not violate Savana's Fourth Amendment rights. The full court, which recently heard oral arguments in the case, now has an opportunity to overturn that decision and vote against a legal environment in which schoolchildren are conditioned to believe government agents have the authority to subject people to invasive, humiliating searches on the slightest pretext.
Safford Middle School has a "zero tolerance" policy that prohibits possession of all drugs, including not just alcohol and illegal intoxicants but prescription medications and over-the-counter remedies, "except those for which permission to use in school has been granted." In October 2003, acting on a tip, Vice Principal Kerry Wilson found a few 400-milligram ibuprofen pills (each equivalent to two over-the-counter tablets) and one nonprescription naproxen tablet in the pockets of a student named Marissa, who claimed Savana was her source.
Savana, an honors student with no history of disciplinary trouble or drug problems, said she didn't know anything about the pills and agreed to a search of her backpack, which turned up nothing incriminating. Wilson nevertheless instructed a female secretary to strip-search Savana under the school nurse's supervision, without even bothering to contact the girl's mother.
The secretary had Savana take off all her clothing except her underwear. Then she told her to "pull her bra out and to the side and shake it, exposing her breasts," and "pull her underwear out at the crotch and shake it, exposing her pelvic area." Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between drug warriors and child molesters.
"I was embarrassed and scared," Savana said in an affidavit, "but felt I would be in more trouble if I did not do what they asked. I held my head down so they could not see I was about to cry." She called it "the most humiliating experience I have ever had." Later, she recalled, the principal, Robert Beeman, said "he did not think the strip search was a big deal because they did not find anything."
The U.S. Supreme Court has held that a public school official's search of a student is constitutional if it is "justified at its inception" and "reasonably related in scope to the circumstances which justified the interference in the first place." This search was neither.
When Wilson ordered the search, the only evidence that Savana had violated school policy was the uncorroborated accusation from Marissa, who was in trouble herself and eager to shift the blame. Even Marissa (who had pills in her pockets, not her underwear) did not claim that Savana currently possessed any pills, let alone that she had hidden them under her clothes.
Savana, who was closely supervised after Wilson approached her, did not have an opportunity to stash contraband. As the American Civil Liberties Union puts it, "There was no reason to suspect that a thirteen-year-old honor-roll student with a clean disciplinary record had adopted drug-smuggling practices associated with international narcotrafficking, or to suppose that other middle-school students would willingly consume ibuprofen that was stored in another student's crotch."
The invasiveness of the search also has to be weighed against the evil it was aimed at preventing. "Remember," the school district's lawyer recently told ABC News by way of justification, "this was prescription-strength ibuprofen." It's a good thing the school took swift action, before anyone got unauthorized relief from menstrual cramps.
© Copyright 2008 by Creators Syndicate Inc.
‘BTW, the Bill of Rights isn’t the source of state power.”
Just as the Bill of Rights isn’t the source of Federal Power. Get a clue
LOL!
So therefore all unidentified pills must be Advil. What an interesting "logic" you have.
So if school policy gave school perverts the right to perform body cavity searches, would you be ok with that?
“Don’t stop until you reach the back of their teeth!”
No, it is a constraint on state powers, Dude.
Sec. 3. The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land.
Redding denied bringing pills to school, denied distributing pills to her classmates, and told Wilson that she did not mind being searched.
Reading is fundamental, "Dude".
Not in your ACLU style Constitutional analysis, You want the Fourth Amendment to be used as a source of power for federal judges to micro-manage local public schools.
“Redding denied bringing pills to school, denied distributing pills to her classmates, and told Wilson that she did not mind being searched.”
Odd. I fail to notice the word “strip” in front of “searched.”
She did not mind being searched or strip-searched? I’m sure she was scared, and coerced by the fact that she feels powerless against the school administrators. Kids are brainwashed to feel that way from kindergarten on.
No, the pills in this case were Advil, Dude. Here are the vaunted facts from this case, Dude:
Wilson asked Marissa where the blue pill had come from, and Marissa replied: “I guess it slipped in when she gave me the IBU 400s.”
The pills they were searching Redding for were Advil, dude, and had to be Advil because the only information they had about what kinds of pills they were looking for, Dude.
Which you on the left misinterpret as complete centralized power.
Leftists hate the Founding Fathers and the principles of federalism.
“So therefore all unidentified pills must be Advil. What an interesting “logic” you have.”
From the article;
“In October 2003, acting on a tip, Vice Principal Kerry Wilson found a few 400-milligram ibuprofen pills (each equivalent to two over-the-counter tablets) and one nonprescription naproxen tablet in the pockets of a student named Marissa, who claimed Savana was her source.”
There wasn’t a damned thing “unidentified.” These perverts knew exactly what they wanted and they got it.
She filed an affidavit swearing that to be the case. Until we get to trial and cross-examine her on this, those are the facts before the Court.
Wrong again.
From the actual decision:
Marissa did so, producing one blue pill, several white pills, and a razor blade.
Why so free with the invective? Did someone hurt your feelings?
In a Libertarian pro-drug mini-magazine. Try reading the actual decision.
“I was embarrassed and scared,” Savana said in an affidavit, “but felt I would be in more trouble if I did not do what they asked. I held my head down so they could not see I was about to cry.” She called it “the most humiliating experience I have ever had.” Later, she recalled, **the principal, Robert Beeman, said “he did not think the strip search was a big deal because they did not find anything.”**
Backwards.
Thanks.
“Not in your ACLU style Constitutional analysis, You want the Fourth Amendment to be used as a source of power for federal judges to micro-manage local public schools.”
The Bill of Rights is a set of limitations upon federal power to protect the natural born rights of American citizens. Those rights exist regardless of whether a federal government even exists. When each state entered the union it acknowledge the Constitution and Bill of Rights as being the supreme law of the land.
Laws and legal precedence at the Federal and state have been subverted by people such as yourself who twist the meaning of words. An education does not make you wise, nor does it make you right.
Your refusal to answer simple questions and sleezy tactics such as accusing others of perversity in order to deflect the discussion is blatant and unimpressive. You appear to be the only person impressed with your argument. IMO, you are lower than the principal who assaulted this child. The world would be better off without scum like you who protect those who prey upon children and the innocent.
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