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The School Crotch Inspector - Fighting the Advil menace, one strip search at a time
Reason ^ | April 2, 2008 | Jacob Sullum

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.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: advil; arth; ashredux; authoritarianism; healthnazis; homeschoolingisgood; nannystate; publicschool; schooldiscipline; stripsearch; teens; twoequalsthree; wod; wodlist; zot
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To: pandoraou812
Gerbils shriek
1,361 posted on 04/06/2008 8:11:48 PM PDT by 50mm (1) Stomp on innocent's head. 2) Knock down door. 3) Apply for warrant. 4) Find probable cause.)
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To: AndyJackson
Those two judges should be praying that the en banc hearing correct their folly, and then they ought to ask forgiveness of this girl, and spend some time in quiet contemplation of their roles in the order of things.

Well said.

Regime change in the courts.
Impeach activist judges!

1,362 posted on 04/06/2008 8:18:07 PM PDT by TigersEye (Beijing 2008 - Berlin 1936. Olympics staged for murdering tyrant regimes.)
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To: jmc813
Dude, it's f#$&ing Advil!!!

He's dead, Jim. (zotaphorically speaking)

: )

1,363 posted on 04/06/2008 8:28:02 PM PDT by TigersEye (Beijing 2008 - Berlin 1936. Olympics staged for murdering tyrant regimes.)
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To: driftdiver
thank you for your support Tiger. Its refreshing to see how many good people are in the world.

You are very welcome.

Laws don’t make the people; people make the laws.

True. Laws are not an absolute good nor an absolute bad. The virtue, or lack thereof, in a law depends as much in its administration as in its legislation. And in both those things wisdom is as necessary as good intention.

1,364 posted on 04/06/2008 8:35:04 PM PDT by TigersEye (Beijing 2008 - Berlin 1936. Olympics staged for murdering tyrant regimes.)
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To: 50mm

Cool! An after the zot picture. Poor robert.


1,365 posted on 04/06/2008 8:38:21 PM PDT by TigersEye (robertpaulsen got the zot. ... Lost his cool, fell off the pot.)
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To: TigersEye
Well said.

No it's not!

Citation? C'mon, man. Citation? Facts! Facts! ACLU! Read the decision. No force! Knives and Advil. 400mg. Drug dealing. Read it. You can read, can't you? Why do you ask? I didn't say that. Citation? They asked. No force. You're making that up. Just the facts. They lost.

Geez, Louise. My canned response generator is on the fritz!

1,366 posted on 04/06/2008 8:41:06 PM PDT by 50mm (1) Stomp on innocent's head. 2) Knock down door. 3) Apply for warrant. 4) Find probable cause.)
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To: TigersEye

Not robert, IT.


1,367 posted on 04/06/2008 8:42:13 PM PDT by 50mm (1) Stomp on innocent's head. 2) Knock down door. 3) Apply for warrant. 4) Find probable cause.)
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To: 50mm

Laughing too hard here.


1,368 posted on 04/06/2008 9:05:58 PM PDT by pandoraou812 (Out, damned spot......OUT)
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To: 50mm

Hey you forgot pesky & that razor blade. Facts darn it!!! quick think up another non fact!


1,369 posted on 04/06/2008 9:08:25 PM PDT by pandoraou812 (Out, damned spot......OUT)
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To: TigersEye

You need to watch that video. I wonder who is the rabbit & who is the gerbil....


1,370 posted on 04/06/2008 9:09:29 PM PDT by pandoraou812 (Out, damned spot......OUT)
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To: pandoraou812

Gerbil is Jim Belushi, Rabbit is James Woods.


1,371 posted on 04/06/2008 9:13:41 PM PDT by 50mm (1) Stomp on innocent's head. 2) Knock down door. 3) Apply for warrant. 4) Find probable cause.)
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To: 50mm
Geez, Louise. My canned response generator is on the fritz!

It looks alright to me. I suppose it could use a few more obscure SCOTUS case names. US vs Gerbil

1,372 posted on 04/06/2008 9:16:37 PM PDT by TigersEye (robertpaulsen got the zot. ... Lost his cool, fell off the pot.)
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To: pandoraou812
It's a Blockbuster commercial: Blockbuster Gerbil Commercial Scroll down to mid page.
1,373 posted on 04/06/2008 9:17:04 PM PDT by 50mm (1) Stomp on innocent's head. 2) Knock down door. 3) Apply for warrant. 4) Find probable cause.)
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To: pandoraou812
What video? It's just a picture of a dead gerbil. Can't you see?

lol

1,374 posted on 04/06/2008 9:18:32 PM PDT by TigersEye (robertpaulsen got the zot. ... Lost his cool, fell off the pot.)
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To: TigersEye

I’m too tired now, but tomorrow I will collect all the stupid, non-response responses and put them in a single post.


1,375 posted on 04/06/2008 9:19:00 PM PDT by 50mm (1) Stomp on innocent's head. 2) Knock down door. 3) Apply for warrant. 4) Find probable cause.)
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To: TigersEye
What video?

The fantasy one playing over and over in your head.

It's just a picture

It's not a picture just because you say it is.

dead gerbil

Leave my deceased snugglebunny partner out of this!

Can't you see?

Why yes, 20-20. Why do you ask?

1,376 posted on 04/06/2008 9:23:25 PM PDT by 50mm (1) Stomp on innocent's head. 2) Knock down door. 3) Apply for warrant. 4) Find probable cause.)
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To: TigersEye; 50mm

No theres a video & there is a rabbit & a gerbil & its so funny. I want to know who the rabbit is & who the gerbil is, where is 50mm to tell us?


1,377 posted on 04/06/2008 9:24:20 PM PDT by pandoraou812 (Out, damned spot......OUT)
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To: 50mm

I knew the voices...I am applying it to the crickets who seem to have lost their voices...Oh thats right one is gone...


1,378 posted on 04/06/2008 9:27:18 PM PDT by pandoraou812 (Out, damned spot......OUT)
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To: pandoraou812

RP Rabbit, IT Gerbil? Not sure.


1,379 posted on 04/06/2008 9:27:45 PM PDT by 50mm (1) Stomp on innocent's head. 2) Knock down door. 3) Apply for warrant. 4) Find probable cause.)
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To: 50mm
I’m too tired now, but tomorrow I will collect all the stupid, non-response responses and put them in a single post.

Is there enough bandwidth here for that?

1,380 posted on 04/06/2008 9:31:45 PM PDT by TigersEye (robertpaulsen got the zot. ... Lost his cool, fell off the pot.)
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