School strip-searches

What would your reaction be if, one day, your 13-year-old daughter came home from school to report that a school administrator, suspecting she was hiding ibuprofen, forced her to take off her clothes and then pull out her underwear to prove there were no pills there? Not at all happy, we suspect.

[Bob]

This incident must be a nightmare for the parent.

[Jack]

Every now and then a situation comes up where I seriously question the "peaceful and civilized" concept of allowing the "authority" to resolve our differences. Had these school officials not been school officials and did exactly the same thing they would be in prison and they would have their picture on a sex offender list. The wouldn't be allowed to be near any child or any school.
BUT, they were school officials and the USSC has determined that those sex offenders didn't do anything wrong enough to be punished.
What comes to my mind is: What should happen to a parent that walks into that school and puts a fist really, really hard into the principle's face?

[Wabanga]

I believe the SC decision does leave open the possibility of liability on the part of the school district. And I certainly hope they get sued to the brink of oblivion to prevent this from happening to another kid.

[City Resident]

Wabanga wrote:

I believe the SC decision does leave open the possibility of liability on the part of the school district. And I certainly hope they get sued to the brink of oblivion to prevent this from happening to another kid.

The saddess part is that it will probably take a huge financial loss for the school district to change their policies!

[TAKH]

No clear line. Give me break! There is a very clear line and the pole vaulted over it. We need to teach our kids when and how to respectfully tell authority figures NO and insist that their parents be called in. We also need to stop this insane you can't have any drug in school or we're going to strip search you, suspend you, expel you etc. There are days when girl reaches high school when she NEEDS pain killers - you know what they are. When I was kid I could take my antibiotic pill with me to school when I was sick and take it a lunch. We are TOTALLY overreacting to the whole drug thing.

[Jeff]

I think the school officials should be charged as sex offenders. If this were my kid, I'd have gone in there with a gun and asked for a jury trial.

And I would have won.

[da spellin homegirl]

I would hate to think of what my Dad might have done to these people, should I have come home with a story like this.

When I was in high school in California, skirts were short, but Orange County was not exactly part of the Swinging 60's. I was sent to the principal's office for my skirt being too short. The man made me turn my back to him and bend over and touch my toes. When I told this to my Dad after he got home from work he was so angry that he went to have a talk with the principal the next day. For some reason, I suspect he did more than talk to the principal because that man never so much as looked at me, much less my skirt, ever again.

And if this medication incident had happened to my daughter, I think something terrible may have befallen the administration.

[Coolmind]

they should have known better ... they had time to call in a female nurse and female police officer and perhaps even the parents and could have done the search in a more gentle way .. But like too many adults, they think they can do anything to kids.

"It's OK to swat a kid" .. wrong!

[Dad]

It would be nice to think that K-12 teachers and administrators are not all child molesters. This case makes it harder to take this point of view.

[Bankerdanny]

I cannot disagree more with your next to last paragraph.

I read the decision. It is true that the law is a little fuzzy. But as you point out in the final paragraph, that is when common sense should take over.

Yes, there was a 'drug' involved. But both pills were simply single pill doses of what the students could have ingested by taking 2 extra-strength over-the-counter pills. Neither drug has any recreational use.

I don't think the administrator should be criminally liable, but civil liability is something different. He violated this young woman's rights in one of the worst possible ways and for the flimziest of reasons. The vice-principal in this case has tremendous power over this girl and he knowingly and actively abused it and should be subject to civil action.

[Bankerdanny]

da spellin homegirl wrote:

...And if this medication incident had happened to my daughter, I think something terrible may have befallen the administration.

That was one the first things I thought when I heard about this. If a school adminstrator had done this to my child (male or female) regardless of the reason, without contacting me FIRST there would have been more than words and lawsuits exchanged.

[common good]

Polite AND forceful in an even tone does wonders when paying a visit to voice your displeasure. Especially when you back them into a corner with pulling their DL out and reading them their residence address to them...with a smile.

[Riley]

Those school administrators are arrogant jerks, and their not the only ones. With clowns like that in charge, no wonder Education is in such a sorry state. All those people are interested in is covering their butts and telling kids who really can't defend themselves to sit down, shut up, and do what you're told. I hope that school district gets sued big time.

[sara]

Wabanga wrote:

I believe the SC decision does leave open the possibility of liability on the part of the school district. And I certainly hope they get sued to the brink of oblivion to prevent this from happening to another kid.

word!

[William Root]

Had this student been an illegal alien, you can bet your bottom dollar there would've been a completely different scenario in the courts and press!