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, because it would absolutely contradict my entire life's experiences.
By the way,,,A's are usually the result of tons of homeschooling ( AKA “homework”) at home. Another word for homework is “afterschooling”.
In my experience, ALL academically successful children are homeschooled. If they are institutionalized and academically successful, it is because their parents “after schooled” them.
Perhaps as others think about the above statement they will see that it matches their life's experiences as well.
private
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Private school? Wow! Does this sound like uncaring parents, or parents who didn’t give a fig about education? Personally, I don’t think so.
That would be a shame, now wouldn't it?
Wrong again on the afterschooling. I never did homework at home. Abusive parents made that impossible. I was too busy dodging fists at home. I always finished work at school.
I am glad to see you add the qualifier to your "ALL academically" statement.
They sent me to private school so I wouldn't have to associate with African-Americans. They didn't care a whit about my education. They were racist bigots and I was glad to be out of their house the day I turned 18.
Again, my best teachers were public school teachers.
Sorry.
Fine. Get your drug dealing daughter out of my school.
"Why didn't the school call for a female cop if they thought the child had drugs?"
They checked the drug Schedules and found that Advil was legal. Why are you trying to make a bad situation worse by calling in the cops?
What, that they operate in pairs? Yeah, that is breaking news to me.
And it pleases me greatly to hear that you're standing behind me throughout this whole ordeal.
In you own words... They checked the drug Schedules and found that Advil was legal.
So its legal in your words. Do you happen to be a teacher or a principal? I hope one day you get pulled over & some nasty cop has you drop your pants on the side of the highway. You then might understand but then again you might be fine with it. Have a nice night RP. Its always so much fun reading your posts!
Calling the police makes things worse? For who?
Source?
All I've read about are accusations from other students and fruitless searches of the girl. Did I miss the part where she later confessed or was convicted or something?
The schools belong to the state not you. And since when is carrying Advil drug dealing?
“Many of the good public school educators have come to recognize that public schools are no place to educate their own children. In fact, public school teachers are twice as likely as other parents to place their own children in private schools – including 44 percent of public school teachers in Philadelphia, 41 percent in Cincinnati, 39 percent in Chicago, etc. Why do so many public school teachers place their own children in private schools? A common answer given by these educators is: “Private and religious schools impose greater discipline, achieve higher academic achievement, and offer overall a better atmosphere.”
http://www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=159
Now that is sadly funny.
I am removing my daughter from public school & morons who run it & think like you do. My drug dealing daughter happens to be 8 years old. Does she break the law? Yes she does because I dare NJ & her school to tell me she can't carry her inhaler. Seems her school nurse has to be in charge of it which was fine by me but the stupid nurse would forget to call her down for treatments. So I got a drs note , made a copy & sent it to school saying she would carry her inhaler & if they had a problem I would pull her out asap. I also called the board of ed & told them if my daughter had an attack on the school bus without being allowed her inhaler I would sue them. Since then there has been no problem. I like how schools belong to you RP. What else do you own?
Homosexuals commit sex crimes much more often than heterosexuals.
homosexuals molest at far higher rates than do heterosexuals.
But even if that were not true that homosexuals commit more child abuse, would you allow heterosexual men to go on camping trips with young girls. Would you allow women to be gym teachers for boys. Of course not! You don't put people into tempting situations. Likewise it would be crazy to allow homosexuals similar access to young boys. Doesn't that make sense?
Heh!
Bull$hit. Pure and simple.
What else do you call it when an innocent is forcibly stripped and her privates closely examined. Children should not have to suffer molestation anywhere.
Re dimwit teachers:
“The federal government’s own National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports that college education majors have the lowest Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores of any undergraduate major. And the results of the standardized entry exam for students seeking post-graduate degrees reveals that education majors have the second-lowest scores of all majors. And if an education major decides to enter law, the LSAT (the Law School Admission Test) shows that education majors rank at the bottom – 26th out of 29 majors. This is not to suggest that all teachers lack basic academic knowledge; but the fact is undeniable that their profession ranks as one of the lowest in academic competency.”
http://www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=159
Well, first of all, I call that sentence a lie if you're referring to the above case.
Second, she was asked to remove her outer garments only.
Third, her privates were never examined, much less "closely".
Fourth, this was done privately in front of two women, one of them the school nurse.
And fifth, they had reasonable suspicion that she was concealing drugs.
To call this a "rape" is a insult to every woman who has been raped and diminishes the meaing of the word.
Yeah. Now that you mention it, yes, I did. It was right after the part where another child said this child gave her the drugs.
"So its legal in your words."
Well, legal by federal standards, yes. But it went against the school rules.
"Its always so much fun reading your posts!"
Thank you. Thank you. I'll be here all week.
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