School strip-searched girl for Advil
p2pnet news view P2P:- “If a school is going to go fishing in a little girls underwear and put her through this humiliation, shame, violation, and embarrassment because another student says, ‘I saw her with aspirin,’ one must question what’s in store in the future with the way things are going in the States.”
Not only the US, sadly.
The quote in the intro comes in an email from p2pnet World Headlines compiler Marc.
He’s the father of two daughters and he points to stories centering on a strip search conducted by a school on a 13-year-old Arizon girl.
“Savana Redding, now 19, was an honors student at Safford Middle School in when she was strip searched in 2003,” says DoSomething.org, going on »»»
School officials accused her of providing prescription-strength ibuprofen (the ingredient in Advil) pills.
The school district is appealing a decision that allows Redding to sue. School officials argue the search was reasonable because another student reported that Savana had given her pills. A search of her backpack found nothing, so school officials ordered her to strip down to her underwear, an experience she calls “the most humiliating experience I have ever had.”
“After no drugs were found in her bag, she had to remove her clothing, and then move her bra and underwear,” says the BBC.
Now, in an 8-1 decision, the US Supreme Court has ruled Safford Middle School officials, “violated the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches with their treatment of Savana Redding,” says CTV.
“The court ruled that the officials could not be held financially liable but left it to lower courts to decide if the school district could,” it says.
But it looks like in the US, strip-searching kids is OK under certain circumstances.
“While children’s advocates and civil liberties groups cheered the decision, others suggested the high court may have created further problems for school systems by failing to make clear exactly when school administrators can strip search students and when they can’t,” says the story.
Says Marc »»
Today it’s aspirin, tomorrow it’s an mp3.
This one struck a chord with me. If ever this happened to our girls …
And the press! they call it “painkillers” like it was some sort of illegal drug! It was ibuprofen. Many young girls her age will have this in case they get “cramps”.
Homeschooling… seems better and better to me as I get older in this nutty world.
I couldn’t agree more and I’m glad my wife, Liz, and I decided to home-school our daughter, Emma, from the beginning.
Jon
(Cheers, Marc)
DoSomething.org – Strip-search case reaches US Supreme Court, April 21, 2009
BBC – Strip-search of US girl illegal, June 25, 2009
CTV – Strip search of Ariz. teenager illegal, court says, June 25, 2009
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June 26th, 2009 at 11:04 am
who the hell do they think they are strip searching a child?!
June 26th, 2009 at 11:13 am
Let’s hope there were only females present. If there were males present during the search, I think that’s definite grounds for a lawsuit. Even law enforcement is not allowed to have males present during a search of a female (though they did it anyway with the drunk person whom the police removed all her clothing while restraining her — whatever happened with that?).
Why’d it take from 2003 to now to make the news? There should have been an uproar when it happened, followed by an investigation.
Who doesn’t get a headache and require an advil? Yes, even at 13 you can get headaches, and girls have extra problems which for some is very painful and very difficult to deal with.
“another student reported that Savana had given her pills” Is this being taken out of context? What is the context? Did some teacher see some student taking meds and hounded her until she said “I got them from Savana”? They seem to be throwing it into the context of Savana pushing meds onto students like a drug dealer, at 13 yrs old no less.
It really depends on how the media spins this doesn’t it. And I’m sure that depends on who approached the media first, most likely it was the school.
June 26th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
I like how their only reason was another girls’ (false) allegations.
June 26th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
There *was* an uproar in ‘03 when it happened, and yes, there was at least one male present for the search (see aclu video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9QQCiT1e_w ).
The school had a “zero tolerance” policy on all medications – in order to get meds for a headache, a student would have had to have a parent bring the med to the school, leave it with the nurse with detailed instructions on when/how it would be distributed to their child, then go to the nurse’s office if needed.
Another student was caught with advil, and said she got them from Savana. They found nothing on Savana, despite the strip search.
The reason it’s news *now* is that it just passed SCOTUS, who made (the right) decision on it. It took it this long to get there, through lower courts, etc.
I’m appalled by this: “While children’s advocates and civil liberties groups cheered the decision, others suggested the high court may have created further problems for school systems by failing to make clear exactly when school administrators can strip search students and when they can’t,”
Um…how about NEVER. It’s NEVER okay for a school official to strip search a child. N-E-V-E-R. If there is really a situation that bad, then the police AND the parents need to be called in, before strip searching is even considered. WTH?
June 26th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
6 years for a court to say, “this was wrong”?
June 26th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
At least this went to trial. Check out the latest with Hope Steffey, whom had a fight with her cousin, was assaulted, the cop showed up, she handed the wrong ID to the cop (a memento from her deceased sister), she was arrested, “deemed suicidal” stripped with 8 ppl in the room, at least two were males, whom later laughed about it outside the cell (video is on youtube albeit bad quality) and now the justice department won’t do anything. There’s over 128 cases of women being deemed “suicidal” and left naked in their cells.
While this happened to a child, at least the Supreme Court is thinking (except Clearance Thomas) in the right direction. What’s next is to establish accountability, especially by those in power.
If police (say VPD or BC RCMP) were actually held accountable for their actions, no coverups, no “shhh and they will forget” methodologies, if they were run by decent, honourable chiefs with bosses who honoured the law more than anything, these incidents would not happen. Anyone with authority, children or not, should be punished for their mistakes, especially when it is clearly a mistake, both logically and legally.
When a citizen makes a mistake, they are treated as guilty until proven innocent, somewhat by the public, but especially by far too many members of “authority.” The same MUST be followed for members of authority. Only then would rights abuse cases disappear. No bouncer who loves to brawl would apply to be an officer if he was fully aware that excessive use of force was met with extreme punishment (and I don’t mean no second donut), as outlined in the law.
These teachers need to stop pleading ignorance and trying to look for a legal loophole and start using their brains.
Anyone see Lord Of War? Ethan Hawke’s character is what any officer or teacher or principal should aspire to; one who will not break the laws that he/she swore to uphold, even though they suspect the person is guilty and probably is.
Do your job properly or quit and do something else!
June 26th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
*by trial I mean reviewed by the Supreme Court. Sorry, too emotional over the Hope Steffey case and video.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
I’d hate to have seen what they have done if they were looking for a gun…
this has got to be the stupidest thing a school official has ever done
June 27th, 2009 at 1:10 am
She was lucky to get off without having to submit to a body-cavity search.
Better get used to it – the routine strip-search has become part of American culture – not to mention being exported around the world.
It won’t be long before EVERYONE boarding a plane will have to submit to a “virtual strip search” by a high-definition x-ray machine already in use at many airports.
see http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/06/20/bc-virtually-naked-airport-scanner.html
“The airport in Kelowna, B.C., will be the first in Canada to test a new type of passenger scanner that creates a three-dimensional image of people’s bodies.
The new body imager unveiled on Thursday uses high frequency electromagnetic waves known as millimetre waves to create a detailed 3-D image of what a person looks like underneath their clothes.”
June 27th, 2009 at 8:49 am
“Better get used to it” is the wrong attitude. “Invasion of privacy for zero net gain and wide open for abuse” is the right attitude.
Remember the words of Benjamin Franklin “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”
June 27th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
“Better get used to it” is the type of stance many are taking be it a strip search, fined 100K for a download or google invading your privacy.
I won’t get used to it.
June 28th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Most people are so stupid they allow this type of treatment from any asshole who pretends to have a little power. keep letting them take your rights and you will be next . If I was that girls father the pathetic “school officials” on their little power trips would think twice before trying it again, as they lay on the ground bleeding with there fucking faces beat in. Are there any men left in this country?
June 28th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Most people aren’t “stupid” — that’s the dangerous part.
Most people love power-structures, hierarchy, and “order” — it’s tidy, and not very challenging.
That’s why parents — stupid sheep — lobby to have “controversial” books and movies banned from school libraries, so the next generation is sure to turn into the same mindlessly-orthodox, passive little “goodthinkers”.
Orwell said: “Orthodoxy is unconsciousness” — protective stupidity, and we see that played out every day, from gay folks who just happen to question/transgress traditional sexual “roles” right on down to people publishing “controversial” books.
I’ve been saying this for a long while, but 9/11 didn’t really represent that much of a “shift” — the “new normal” is exactly like the “old normal” — corporate malfeasance, mindless nationalism, sloganeering — “Freedom fries” — we deserved Bush.
We deserve Obama now — he’s exactly the sort of feel-good “Raging centrist” we love: the fact that he’s bi-racial and has a foreign-sounding nickname makes us feel like things are “different” while the underlying sociopolitical structure remains intact in every way that really counts, perpetual war on down.
A “kinder, gentler” fascism, complete with Lee Greenwood and yellow ribbons.