Girl's strip search argued in court

capoly

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Girl's strip search argued in court

WASHINGTON — In Supreme Court arguments Tuesday over the strip search of a 13-year-old for prescription-strength ibuprofen, more justices voiced sympathy for the school administrators looking for possible drugs than for the girl who had to take off her clothes.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washin...urt-strip-search_N.htm?csp=24&RM_Exclude=Juno
......


Re video: Interesting question put to Savana Redding by a reporter, went along the lines of...

"You know there are a bunch of old guys up there (did I hear that right? LOL) and all but one of them are men. So what do you think they did not understand etc..."

Seemed at first like an attempt to get Savana riled up (though Savana's practical reply suggested she didn't 'get' the male dominant aspect) but after reading the article, can see why the reporter asked the question.

imo While I agree drugs are a serious problem, Justice Stephen Breyer's dismissive attitude re strip searches of children also presents a serious problem.

His job is to determine if the strip search of this child, as it occurred to this child, was unreasonable/reasonable under the 4th Amendment. So I can only hope that senility, rather than constitutional interpretation, is the reason behind his bizarre remarks while court was in session:

"Justice Stephen Breyer said that middle-schoolers often hid things in their underwear, but then he protested — amid laughter —"Not my underwear......

Breyer also questioned the degree of the privacy intrusion. "I'm trying to work out why is this a major thing to say, 'Strip down to your underclothes,' " he said, "which children do when they change for gym."

I hope he is able to work out why it is a major thing that he be able to differentiate between a child being strip searched and a child changing into gym clothes.

In the days of Kings and castles...Court Fools amused by ludicrous actions and utterances.
 
This whole case just baffles me.

If a teacher had done this to a child without the accusation of "drugs" then the teacher would be arrested and on the RSO list in a heartbeat.

Changing for PE is absolutely in no way like being forced to shake out your bra and underwear while being ogled by two adults. I don't know what "changing for PE" means to them, but if that's what they think then they weren't doing it right!

I don't understand why, if there were a credible accusation, they couldn't have kept the girl in a supervised place until her parents arrived so that they could observe and advise her. I cannot imagine my 13yo being able to cope with this situation or to know what he was supposed to do. As a parent I would be furious, especially over ibuprofen! It's not like she had crack or a gun!!! And who knows if the accusation was even credible? The girl who got caught might not have wanted to name a friend who really gave it to her. Hellooooo? Do any of these geezers remember high school?

Seriously, some of these school administrators are like that power hungry cop in TX, and need to get the hell over themselves. Common sense shouldn't be thrown out the window on a daily basis because of a few rare tragedies that capture our attention and fear.

I cannot imagine the crap they will get away with now. All some pedo teacher has to say is, "Well, so and so told me she had a knife in her bra and I was just checking...for the safety of the other children, of course!"

Ibuprofen! FFS...this is the same bunch who think a 13yo should be able to get an abortion without parental consent, but God help her if she actually gets her period and needs ibuprofen without a signed affadavit from the doctor and the school nurse!!!

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
 
A strip search for ibuprofen is unreasonable. Just like all the fuss over children with a plastic knife in a lunch box or a child drawing a picture of a gun, common sense seems to have gone out the window under the guise of no tolerance.
 
What a bunch of old coots. Back in the day, I know cuz I've been there, we stripped down for gym to the naked bod. and had to shower in a locker room with a long wall of showers while our thought-to-be-lesbian gym teacher stood staring at every naked girl from her office with windows all around and a great view of the shower wall. This desensitized us. It was tough and we got through it. Kids don't do that anymore, heck there isn't even gym in some schools and they certainly don't have to shower.

They underestimate how protective a girl needs to be about her body nowadays. GET with it old coots.

In this age where the life span is greater, I'm not sure a lifetime appointment is a good thing!!!!!
 
I find it interesting that there were 2 male students involved who were not strip searched.

The first male was the informant. Although he was in possession of the 400mg ibuprofen pill, no strip search was done. (Based on experience, my personal belief is that informant does not equate to innocent.)

The second young man was asked only to empty pockets and shake shirt & pants. He was not required to strip to his underwear and shake, rattle & roll.

Yet both girls involved were required to strip down to their underwear then stretch and shake their bra and panties which, according to Savana, exposed her breasts and genital area. :waitasec:

After reading more of Savana's story, have to say I admire the child. Within minutes she went from being a 13yo honor student with no prior disciplinary issues to being treated like a hard core druggie over a 400mg ibuprofen not found in her possession.

Her words were not believed. She was humiliated by a strip search and worse, betrayed by her 'BFF'. (At 13 is there anything worse than BFF betrayal?)

I hope she is inspired to pursue a law degree....the old coots will need replacing eventually.


Redding v. Safford - Affidavit of Savana Redding (11/3/2004)
http://www.aclu.org/drugpolicy/search/34293lgl20041103.html

Strip Search of Middle School Student Reasonable
Summery and impact of 9th Cir 2007 ruling
http://www.school-training.com/newsletter/articles/str-searches-07-9thcir.shtml


The 2007 ruling was overturned in 2008.
http://72.3.233.244/drugpolicy/search/35955lgl20080711.html



4th Amendment as applicable to public schools.

Public Schools .--In New Jersey v. T.L.O., 108 the Court set forth the principles governing searches by public school authorities. The Fourth Amendment applies to searches conducted by public school officials because ''school officials act as representatives of the State, not merely as surrogates for the parents.'' 109 However, ''the school setting requires some easing of the restrictions to which searches by public authorities are ordinarily subject.'' 110 Neither the warrant requirement nor the probable cause standard is appropriate, the Court ruled. Instead, a simple reasonableness standard governs all searches of students' persons and effects by school authorities. 111 A search must be reasonable at its inception, i.e., there must be ''reasonable grounds for suspecting that the search will turn up evidence that the student has violated or is violating either the law or the rules of the school.'' 112 School searches must also be reasonably related in scope to the circumstances justifying the interference, and ''not excessively intrusive in light of the age and sex of the student and the nature of the infraction.'' 113 In applying these rules, the Court upheld as reasonable the search of a student's purse to determine whether the student, accused of violating a school rule by smoking in the lavatory, possessed cigarettes. The search for cigarettes uncovered evidence of drug activity held admissible in a prosecution under the juvenile laws.

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment04/04.html
 
I believe this is the case where the Supreme Court Judge said something along the lines that schools have as much authority as the cops and children have less rights than prison inmates. I knew that already quite awhile ago.
 
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-court-strip-search26-2009jun26,0,5149828.story

Reporting from Washington -- The strip search of a 13-year-old school girl who was suspected of hiding pain-relief pills was unreasonable and unconstitutional, the Supreme Court ruled today, setting new legal limits on how far school officials may go to inspect for drugs on campus.

In an 8-1 decision, the high court called a strip search at school "categorically distinct" from other inspections for drugs and so degrading that it usually cannot be justified.


Meanwhile, Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg would have gone further and upheld a liability ruling against the school officials in this case. "I have long believed that 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 of some magnitude," Stevens wrote.
 
If the school absolutely had to strip search the girl, they should have brought in a female policewoman to do it. NO EXCUSE!!
 
If a school official even thought about stripping my child without a parent present (especially a minor)....your can bet your *advertiser censored*S that I would file molestation charges against them before the clothes were zipped back up. UNREAL!
 
Good for the decision. No child should be strip searched by a school district who get their money from our hard earned taxes. No school should ever ever have that much power over our children. If we allow it, we will eventually reap the consequences. These are only people, people who are trying to control our children and our lives. To strip search over tylenol is the most ridiculous thing in the world. Not only that, they should not have power to arrest our children when the most heinous criminals have more rights and access to attorneys before even being charged with any sort of crimes. The supreme court has already ruled that children have less rights than any prisoner and that schools have more rights than the police.
 

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