By snoadmin
Sometimes it feels like Americans live in some strange Orwellian nightmare; we’re constantly under surveillance for acts deemed illicit by the powers-that-be. Even those who pose no threat are treated like criminals in some cases.
It is appalling that good, hard-working young citizens are subjected to inappropriate scrutiny from officials who should be spending more time educating and less time looking for kids to bust.
A clear-cut example of misuse of power occurred in 2003 when a 13-year-old girl named Savana Redding was wrongfully accused of possessing prescription-strength ibuprofen when she arrived at her Arizona middle school.
Redding, an honor student who had never been in trouble at school, was ordered by her vice principal to be strip searched by a school nurse and an aid. The Los Angeles Times reported that the nurse searched her underwear to see if she was hiding the pills.
Everyone knows it’s those damn 13-year-old honor roll girls who threaten the sanctity of middle schools by smuggling in horrible drugs like aspirin.
This horrible violation prompted Redding’s mother to take action against the school. Their case was initially thrown out, prompting the Redding family to take the matter to a higher court.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Redding won last year before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that the strip search of an eighth-grader was unreasonable and unconstitutional and said school officials who ordered the search were liable for damages.
The humiliation this girl has had to endure as a result of her school’s misuse of power is unimaginable.
Many may argue that the school was trying to protect its students from the threat of drugs. Well, the Los Angeles Times reported that Redding had no objection to the principal looking through her backpack and belongings.
Is that not good enough? Why did the school deem it necessary to conduct a strip search? This whole situation is so infuriating that it doesn’t seem real.
Unfortunately, it is very real and the outcome is looking a bit grim. The Supreme Court heard the case last Tuesday and the responses from several of the justices suggest they may side in the school’s favor.
“The thought process in the principal’s mind is: Better embarrassment than the risk of violent sickness and death,” said Justice David H. Souter. “What’s wrong with that reasoning?”
How about everything “In-Justice” Souter? There was no threat whatsoever. This girl was a great student, had never been a disciplinary problem and agreed to have her property searched for contraband. She wasn’t some drug mule trying to sneak the kids in the science club happy pills.
Should the Supreme Court not side with Redding, it would be another disgraceful example of America’s ever-growing laundry list of misused power during recent years. It would rank right up there with waterboarding and the Patriot Act Parts I and II.
No one disputes the need for security. Last week marked the 10th anniversary of the Columbine shootings, an event that could’ve been prevented had the school monitored students better.
There is a line between the reasonable and the unreasonable, however, and in Redding’s case her civil rights were clearly violated once she was strip searched.
It won’t be long before every student is required to undergo a full cavity search before first period.
The judges have between them 12 DAUGHTERS and 11 sons (and 3 unidentified). If it were one of their kids, I think their reactions would be very different. There is only ONE female judge who is qualified to provide any kind of response in this case.
Whether the people who conducted the search were of the same sex does not justify this. Either way it is a form of sexual abuse. There was never any solid evidence and the school never contacted the police. They didn’t even bother getting permission from the girl’s parents. When I was in middle school there was a male teacher that repeatedly raped a 12 year old boy (male). I know first hand what kind of sicko’s could possibly be within our school system’s and I wouldn’t trust any one of them to strip down my child, especially without my permission, and certainly not without having contacted the police.
Why would we give school administration latitude we would not give our law enforcement officers. The evidence against this girl according to an investigation by the school administration, was totally hearsay. THere is years of history regarding searches by police, let them handle it. If this girl was breaking the law, call the police. I’ve advised my children to curl up in a ball and ask for their parents. Criminal investigations and witch hunts are not the jobs of school officials.
Do you all really believe that it should have been handled that way? Come one, for one, it was not “several students” but a couple, who pointed her out AFTER being caught with the drugs. If I was in High School and could put the blame on someone else, I would do so in a heartbeat. You’re saying to trust delinquent kids when it comes to drugs, but not when it comes to why they skipped class or didn’t do their homework?
Anyway, for an imminent threat, what would strip searching her do? The drugs would already be out no matter how you look at it. I would have put her in a room under surveilence by a teacher and call her parents and the police to do the search. How hard is it to do that? It would take 5-10 minutes for a cop to arrive and perform the search. And if the threat was so high, why not have a K9 unit come to the school anyway. So, the order should have gone:
1. call the police to help do a search of the school for more drugs
2. call the parents of the suspected students
3. search the suspects lockers/bags while you wait for the police to arrive
4. have police with parental supervision and/or consent search the student
If anyone sees a problem with this order for being too over the top, then you have problems since you apparently believe a nurse and an admin assistant have the training to do a strip-search.
Metal detectors make sense to keep out the weapons but what fun would school be without drug use?????? Even the president of the United States admitted to a level of drug use that supercedes the majority of high school students. Now that story a few years back about banning thong underwear thus leading the pricipal to lift skirts when accusations were made; now that was wrong. They should have appointed a member of the wrestling team to handle that. It would be a like a enich who reviews porno movies.
It’s Bush’s fault people! Or maybe the corporate fat cats?
Just what perverted high school teachers need: a legal sign-off to harass students.
Michael Hill, if one of your neighbors told the police “Michael Hill’s a drug dealer,” would you be happy if the police immediately arrested you? I hope so, because you’re saying that it’s OK for schools to discipline students based on hearsay from other students. Do you not see the domino effect this could cause?
First off the student was accused of having prescription strength ibuprofen and “another prescription ant-inflammatory” according to the legal brief. That was left out of the article. So it is more than “just aspirin”. Second the schools have the right to ban drugs – and this includes over the counter medications – because of the risk of misuse by underage students. The school can not create a list of “acceptable” drugs because then they are liable for a student using to much or having an allergic reaction. The search was reasonable because she was accused by several of her peers and the administration conducted a type of strip search that has been approved by the federal government: it was conducted in private, in the presence of a medical official, and by a member of the same sex. This was not a kid forced to strip in front of her class while a bunch of male teachers took notes. I hope the court rules in favor of the search.
“There is a line between the reasonable and the unreasonable.” Please clarify. As this article mentions just before that,10 years ago two seemingly harmless teenagers shot and killed several of their fellow students. Although I disagree with the methods the principal employed, the school did nothing so egregious that the girl could not return to everyday activities. Anyone who has ever been beeped too many times or lightly sniffed by a K-9 at airport security knows that a strip search in front of a nurse and a witness is not common in today’s world. Had she been forced to do this in front of her classmates or a male administrator, maybe there would be an argument. But, it sounds like another case of lawsuit happy, my kid is never wrong because she gets good grades parenting to me.