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.
No. I used your scenario. I just gave it a different ending.
They didn't know what they were going to find. It could have turned out much differently.
But they didn't find anything, and you think your Monday-morning quarterbacking makes you look like you have all the answers.
Welcome to Bobby’s World, Pandy. How are you feeling?
Heh!
Laugh or cry? Well it depends on whether or not you are a government teacher or someone sucking a living off the government school teat.
As thoughtful conservatives think about this statement ( “All academically successful children are homeschooled”) they will begin to see how true it is.
They will begin to compare the home life of the academically successful homeschooled child and that of the academically successful institutionalized child. They will realize that the pre-school experiences of these children are essentially very similar. The time and effort spent by the parent of the institutionalized child in supervising homework is about the same as homeschooling. Later both the schooled and homeschooled child gradually take over more responsibility for their learning. The vast majority of this learning happens at home.
By the way, I have been a health professional nearly all my adult life ( except for the 8 years I homeschooled my kids). In **every** case of an academically successful institutionalized child, the parents reported to me that their homelife and home education experiences matched those of homeschoolers. This is true even in immigrant families with academically successful children. These immigrant parents reported that they found someone to mentor their children. Often it was an older cousin, aunt, or uncle.
Are there exceptions? Hm?...Maybe. If they exist they are very rare.
Just watch. You will see that this idea will catch on and it will be picked up by major conservative editorialists.
Please read post #184.
They thought they might find more prohibited drugs. I'm saying those prohibited drugs could have been just about anything. I would not have been the least bit surprised if they found Ecstasy.
You totally rule out everything. Including more Advil. Of course, you rule it out because the article says nothing more was found. Making you right.
Glad you asked. I was abused and neglected by both my parents. I am successful with a Masters in Electrical Engineering from a top ten university. I live in a McMansion and drive a brand new gas-guzzling SUV. I guess I’m one of your “exceptions.”
Public schools are full of child predators, male and female. This is breaking news to you?
My children were among the very earliest of homeschoolers, and were admitted under the “gifted and talented” loop hole that existed for the community college at the time. They completed all their general education requirements, and Calculus III, on the community college level. At this point the oldest attended a private college and the two younger a state university. Both on the community college, and university and private college levels, our children were the very first homeschoolers to be admitted.
There are many more opportunities for homeschoolers now. Thanks to the outstanding successes of my children, and the homeschoolers that followed them, admission to our local community college and state universities is far more routine for young homeschoolers. Also, there are many more courses available through the Internet, and today there are AP tests as well.
Yep! You are.
No doubt paulsen, who's never met a government action he didn't like, would wholeheartedly approve of such an action.
I do have a problem with this whole thing. NO ADVIL WAS FOUND! The girl said she didn't have it etc. Therefore this drug dealing BS doesn't fit. I hate NJ schools & am so glad my child won't be going back. But I had 5 older children in middle & high school at one time & if any of them had been called to the office for drugs I would have gotten a call asap. Had my oldest daughter been told to remove her clothes there would have been chairs & desks flying. She would have refused & told them to call a cop. My sons might have been better about it but none would have just undressed because they were ordered to by some nurse or principal. I hope the school gets sued & the policy is changed.
Yes. That’s why your sweeping generalizations are so absurd.
I have met cases of academically sucessful **adults**, who have come from troubled homes. In every case, as children they were only average to poor students. It was in college ( usually after a rocky or late start) that these young adults succeeded.
I have never met and example of an academically successful **child** who wasn't homeschooled or “after schooled”.
Definition of “afterschooled”: Home life and home education experiences (pre-school, after school, and summer ) closely resemble those of homeschoolers.
By the way, congratulation!
Glad to hear you are feeling better. Prayer does work.
My post 173 explains my position. Same as yours.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Please note that my statements referred to academically successful **children**. I have not reread all my previous posts, but I don't think I used the word “adult”. I have met academically successful **adults** who have not been homeschooled, but later, in their college, years had the true grit to make a success of themselves.
I did state that there might be exceptions, but, I **personally** have never met them.
Also, please read post #194.
I got straight A grades all through both private and public school. I didn’t struggle/recover in college and wasn’t homeschooled or after schooled.
BTW, most of the better teachers I had were in public school. Sorry to burst your bubble again.
No congratulations are necessary. Maybe an acknowledgment that your sweeping generalizations about public schools could be wrong is in order?
Well...**personally**...I have never met a person like you.
But...congratulations!
It has been reported that you have 12 guage shotgun shells concealed in your rectum. Please report to the nearest police station for a strip search - for your safety and the safety of society.
/absurd (i think)
You need to get out more. Most of my coworkers and friends are like me with similar educational backgrounds.
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