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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: metmom

And I just had to miss it...I felt so tired I went to bed. Darn it.


421 posted on 04/04/2008 7:40:30 PM PDT by pandoraou812 (Out, damned spot......OUT)
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To: pandoraou812; 50mm; TigersEye; dirtboy; darkangel82; AndyJackson

Sorry we couldn’t ping you awake to all the fun.

Speaking of going to bed....now that the fun is over, that sounds like a good idea.

You know, it occurred to me that just because someone is banned from FR, doesn’t mean they can’t read the posts. ;)


422 posted on 04/04/2008 7:49:10 PM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: metmom; robertpaulsen
You know, it occurred to me that just because someone is banned from FR, doesn’t mean they can’t read the posts.

Hence my post 409.

What do you think of them apples, Bill o Rights trampling Bobby Paulsen?

423 posted on 04/04/2008 7:52:15 PM PDT by 50mm (I love the smell of napalm in the morning....It smells like victory!)
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To: metmom
Or have another name.....They used to do that on AOL all the time. Well go to bed & feel better. Pandy
424 posted on 04/04/2008 7:52:46 PM PDT by pandoraou812 (Out, damned spot......OUT)
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To: 50mm

Pex is pretty hardcore, as my kids would say.

We can’t have any of that unhealthy candy stuff floating around. You never know.... some kid could try selling it on school property in violation of the school rules and you know where that could lead....


425 posted on 04/04/2008 7:55:23 PM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: pandoraou812

Yeah, well someone that out of control would have a hard time disguising himself. When you’re off your meds, you’re off your meds.


426 posted on 04/04/2008 7:56:23 PM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: metmom
you know where that could lead....

Bubble gum?

427 posted on 04/04/2008 7:56:28 PM PDT by 50mm (I love the smell of napalm in the morning....It smells like victory!)
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To: 50mm

Shhh. There might be kids reading these posts, you know. This is supposed to be a family friendly forum....


428 posted on 04/04/2008 7:57:29 PM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: 50mm; pandoraou812

You guys aren’t helping any. Good night already.

I’ll just have to check back in tomorrow....

Have fun.


429 posted on 04/04/2008 7:58:39 PM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: metmom
Hey, Bobby sent me pictures of what he found in his kids' skivvies:


430 posted on 04/04/2008 8:00:37 PM PDT by 50mm (I love the smell of napalm in the morning....It smells like victory!)
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To: metmom

Well he certainly is off something. I thought it odd when he first posted to me & asked me to rethink my post about a parent being present. What if it was the girl’s dad or worse step dad? I said at least somebody would be there for the girl. He is odd just odd!


431 posted on 04/04/2008 8:00:44 PM PDT by pandoraou812 (Out, damned spot......OUT)
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To: 50mm
Probably going too far!


432 posted on 04/04/2008 8:05:24 PM PDT by 50mm (Strip search first. Look for evidence later.)
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To: 50mm
I was thinking they might want reimbursement for years of therapy.
Or maybe just come looking for ya.
433 posted on 04/04/2008 8:06:44 PM PDT by TigersEye (Beijing 2008 - Berlin 1936. Olympics staged for murdering tyrant regimes.)
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To: metmom
You know, it occurred to me that just because someone is banned from FR, doesn’t mean they can’t read the posts. ;)

First thing I thought of. ;^)

434 posted on 04/04/2008 8:08:24 PM PDT by TigersEye (Beijing 2008 - Berlin 1936. Olympics staged for murdering tyrant regimes.)
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To: TigersEye
I'm Ready:

Don't Try Me!

435 posted on 04/04/2008 8:09:53 PM PDT by 50mm (Strip search first. Look for evidence later.)
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To: Mr. Jeeves

HA.right.


436 posted on 04/04/2008 8:11:23 PM PDT by Recovering Ex-hippie
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To: TigersEye; metmom; pandoraou812

Check my tag at 432.


437 posted on 04/04/2008 8:11:30 PM PDT by 50mm (Strip search first. Look for evidence later.)
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To: metmom; pandoraou812
We can’t have any of that unhealthy candy stuff floating around. You never know.... some kid could try selling it on school property in violation of the school rules and you know where that could lead....

Hiding it in their shorts? No wonder moms are so militant about wearing clean underwear!

438 posted on 04/04/2008 8:12:37 PM PDT by TigersEye (Beijing 2008 - Berlin 1936. Olympics staged for murdering tyrant regimes.)
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To: TigersEye
No wonder moms are so militant about wearing clean underwear!

You keep giving Bobby more reasons to strip search. Now he's going to be looking for soiled skivvies.

439 posted on 04/04/2008 8:14:34 PM PDT by 50mm (Strip search first. Look for evidence later.)
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To: microgood
Baseball bat was exactly what I was thinking.
You are too kind. I prefer the ASP extending baton. Personally, I feel these schools are the result of several issues. (1)Big fish/small pond. Wanna be A--holes that love flexing their authority, and (2)government conditioning them to be good little obedient future adults for an ever encroaching police state (at least in their dreams)...
440 posted on 04/04/2008 8:16:26 PM PDT by Aut Pax Aut Bellum (Copper and lead-Precious metals of the Future)
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