13 year old girl strip searched at school
Mikey 11 comments
A girl in the 8th grade, 13 years old at the time, was strip searched by 2 school employees because the Principal suspected she was carrying pills.
Savana Redding, now 19, clearly remembers what happened.
"They asked me to pull out my bra and move it from side to side...They made me open my legs and pull out my underwear."
It turns out Savana wasn't hiding anything. Her mother is naturally furious and the case has now reached the Supreme Court where her arguments will be heard this April the 21st.
My question to you is: Did the school over-step it's authority by playing Policeman? In this authors opinion, they absolutely crossed the line. If it were my daughter you can bet I would be after blood.
Appeals court Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw seems to agree.
"It does not require a constitutional scholar to conclude that a nude search of a 13-year-old child is an invasion of constitutional rights. More than that, it is a violation of any known principle of human dignity."
But on the other side of the fence Judge Michael Daly Hawkins is not so convinced.
"I do not think it was unreasonable for school officials, acting in good faith, to conduct the search in an effort to obviate a potential threat to the health and safety of their students."
So what do you think? Would you object if it wasn't your child and drugs were found during a strip search? Do the ends justify the means?
andrew
Wednesday 25th March 2009 | 08:01 PMwhy did they suspect her to begin with? has she been suspected before? always 2 sides to a story and no doubt will come out in court, but why have they waited so long?
Quite simply: the ends never justify the means. You just can't step on one's rights and dignity just because your goal is "right". First, who says everyone agrees that your goal is the correct one? And second, using dirty tactics makes your goal dirty, whatever it was to begin with. True Good cannot be achieved by doing Evil. That's why we need strong privacy laws: if we step on privacy in the name of safety, there will always be someone abusing the system and resulting in innocent victims.
That's what happened here. If the school really had good reason to think the girl was carrying something really dangerous, and was acting in good faith, they would simply have called the police. The police might have done a strip search as well, but they have the right to do so, and they are trained to do so in the least humiliating way (hopefully). The school clearly overstepped its authority. I'm all for strong schools with real means to enforce order within their walls, but there are limits.
Gail
Wednesday 25th March 2009 | 10:50 PMThis was wrong and I hope the school pays through the nose for it. Who cares if she's carrying pills. If that's the case, just send her home.
That school would be lucky if all I did was sue.
Sally
Thursday 26th March 2009 | 07:58 AMWords cant describe how horrified and angry I would be if this was my daughter. Shame on the school and I hope they're made an example of.
Bob
Thursday 26th March 2009 | 08:27 AMI thinks its a little bit funny, in a sick, invaisive way. I hope it was at least two female teachers/staff that did the search.
TVBIZ(BOB)
Thursday 26th March 2009 | 09:54 AM...in response to this comment by Bob. A ridicules comment and not funny at all.
Jake Farr-Wharton
Thursday 26th March 2009 | 11:23 AMThe reason why police or medical staff are used to perform strip searches is because they are 100% impartial to the patient. They are performing a specific duty. If it is school personelle, this poor student has to then face them every school day after they have seen her naked.
Most schools have an anti-drug policy which loosely states that if there is reasonable reason to suspect a person of being on or carrying drugs that the matter is immediately reffered to the parents and police.
This is a completely indecent and I would almost say illegal course of action.
Kissthis
Thursday 26th March 2009 | 02:57 PMI read about this in the New York Times and I found myself with a sudden case of Turrets Syndrome. This is OBSCENELY WRONG on sooooo many levels. I hope the supreme court takes firm and decisive action to make sure this never happens again.
As a parent, I feel it is necessary to establish clear cut boundaries in regards to disciplinary practices at school. I personally arranged a meeting with the principal of the school to learn what their standard practices were, and to let them know if anyone EVER laid a hand on my daughter they could expect to see me in court. Consequently, my wishes were respected and my daughter was responsible enough not to challenge their authority.
The young lady in this situation has been scarred for life and the people responsible for that should be duly punished. : )
jay
Thursday 30th April 2009 | 05:34 PMOk now the thing i don't understand is how can a judge micheal hawkins actually say it was within the school's right to strip search her?? Never should this have happened and it is wrong she was 13 years old and even if she did have ibprofen or however you spell it, it's an over the counter drug, you can buy it at any drug store. It's not like she had coke or crack or pot on her than i can see it but there is no way that school's vice principle should have gotten 2 female employees to search the girl. That in my mind is sick, the vice principle should be ashamed of himself expecially after they found out she was telling the truth and had no drugs on her. Like really the police should have been called, I don't know about the legal system in the U.S is out there to protect the criminals, a lil off topic but there was the incident with the guy breaking into a house fell down the stairs broke his arm and sued the people owning the house that he was breaking into and won. I am sorry but that should not have happened, he should have been charged with breaking and entering if anything but the criminal won the case, or the one with McDonalds where the woman sued them because they didn't have a hot warning on the cup like come on coffee is always hot, thats the point. Either way i hope this vice principle and the 2 female employee's get charged or gets whats coming to them if it were my child i would make sure something happened to them after this sh*t went down.
Marvin the Martian
Wednesday 25th March 2009 | 07:32 PMYou would think that they would have found out what type of medication it was first, call her parents to find out why she was bringing over the counter medication to school and then decided what to do.
Another example of authority overstepping their bounds.