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.
'Bout that tagline at 432; try - "Probable cause follows evidence recovery."
And lets not forget the Principal's sage wisdom. If you don't find anything - "Hey, no foul no harm!"
Hmmm I don’t think my child would hide candy in her undies. At least I don’t think she does....lmao
You know we really ought to stop. He's going to get this thread pulled in absentia if we keep it up. Which was probably his aim with what became his last post.
Your kid is so smart, pandy, she probably hides her contraband candy in your undies. lmao
That’s the spirit. Choose a different victim!
Oh no she doesn’t. She has a teddy bear that has a skirt & she hides the candy under the skirt. Hmm I have to strip search Sassy’s teddy’s bears looking for contraband candy & maybe she is on to the advil now too....Remind to search her bears tomorrow TE.
Pandy, you can't fool me. You went and checked your undie drawer for Halloween candy. You would bring innocent Teddy Bears into it.
Sassy has sticks. She loves sticks & chases the boys with them. She also loves rocks & has stashes of them at our campground to toss at boys. Some times I really think she is going to be a real handful of trouble when she gets older. But she has the brothers & her daddy to deal with. I pity her 1st boyfriend.
Administration at Roscoe Middle School banned 14 Year Old C.B. and others from wearing any form of metal bracelet, anklet or necklace to school because they constituted weapons.
I'm sure that included MedAlert bracelets. No sarcasm intended, I really mean I am sure they did.
Yes TE I do follow your advice & you have helped me & Sassy quite a bit. I always say you saved Sassy from being poisoned by those stupid drs. You are a Hero!
Maybe you could buy boyfriend insurance? Get the Comprehensive Life & Catastrophic Injury policy. Don't let lawsuits ruin your life. ;^P
Either I'm not trying hard enough or you're not really following my advice. lol ;^)
Thats why I am sending her to live in the mountains with you! Joe said he will send some goats with her so she can be like Heidi, Uncle TE.
Well the MRSA came from the hospital or maybe from the tooth getting pulled . I am thinking the hospital. All hospitals have it. I am lucky I caught it so fast.
I'll get you yet, my little pretty! (evil cackle)
How about spit balls fired from a Bic Pen with the ink cartridge removed. Those things are lethal.
If she comes to live with me she won’t need any extra goats.
Well DR A did & you but I made up my own mind . And look I did get good news. So I have to deal with the MRSA....I deal with the hep c. I will get used to it in time...At least I am alive.
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