Cops Investigate School Strip Search Case

[Rose Siding]

LA MARQUE, Texas -- Police are investigating after 10 students between the ages of 11 and 12 were strip-searched while officials at their award-winning charter school tried to find a missing $10 bill.

Seven girls and three boys at the Mainland Preparatory Academy were searched during a study hall Thursday after one of the girls reported the money missing, said principal Wilma Green. The money was not found, she said.

The search has angered at least one parent, who filed a complaint with La Marque police and pulled her four children out of the school.

"I have never signed an consent to let my kids be strip-searched -- never," said Shelli Owens, the mother of a 12-year-old boy who was searched. "I went along with some of their methods in the past, but they would always call me. But no way would I have ever allowed this."
...
"I have done it before," she said. "Never had a complaint. I can't say if it happened again I wouldn't do the same thing."

In Thursday's search, the boys were sent off with a male teacher and the girls with a female teacher, who told them to strip to their underwear, Green said.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-school-strip-search,0,6766835.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[Earth_First]

1. Just wait till they start tasering the children over $10

:eyes:

[acmavm]

2. What kind of a friggin country have we become when we start strip

searching kids for ten lousy dollars.

I say it's time, or probably way past time, the administrator of that school was stripped down and searched for her missing brain.

[Hillary08]

13. Sounds more like the USSR than US...

While Russia has been turning more democratic, it sure looks like we are going the other way!

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. They fired a principal

where I teach when this happened here. She wasn't even in the building when the strip search took place.

But I work in a PUBLIC school where we are most definitely held accountable for what we do. Most charters, like this school in the article, get a free ride. So it wouldn't surprise me if nothing happened to the adults who did this.

And yes, this just disgusts me. Both the strip search incident AND the fact that it happened in a charter school. Damnit, we tried to tell the folks who pushed charter schools down our throats that they would be staffed by unprofessional adults. damn it all!!

[mcscajun]

3. It's a "charter school"

Ugh.

Strip searches in prep school? good night, nurse.

Can't wait to see the lawsuits coming up from this one.

[PA Democrat]

4. Notice they didn't find the money either

Kids lose money all the time. Nice that these folks immediately jumped to the conclusion that it was stolen and force 10 pre-teens to prove their innocence through humiliating strip searches.

Hey next time there is a murder, will all of the citizens of this town be forced to submit DNA samples. How about some of those special TV screens like they had in 1984, so big brother can watch us all at every second of the day.

[proud2BlibKansan]

20. One of my students just before Christmas

claimed that someone had stolen his GameBoy from his backpack. My response was "Too bad, so sad, you know you aren't supposed to bring things like that to school" Well his mom didn't like that response and went to the principal and raised a stink. So the principal came in and talked to my kids and I interviewed each one of them privately while she watched my class. We spent an entire morning on this and none of the kids knew anything about the missing GameBoy.

When we came back from Christmas break, I asked the kid if he found his GameBoy and he said yes, it was under his bed. And his mom had ungrounded him when he found it. Now did mom call the school and tell us this? Did she apologize for forcing me to waste a half a day on this? Hell no. But I made the kid write a letter of apology to the entire class. She had better not call and complain about THAT.

I also suspect she is checking his backpack every day to be sure he doesn't bring things he shouldn't to school. We sure made a big deal out of telling her to do that.

[PA Democrat]

23. You were absolutely right to make that child apologize to his classmates

His mother is doing him a huge disservice if she thinks that there should be no consequences for his actions. Of course the fact that she did not apologize to YOU tells you all you need to know.

[havocmom]

5. ...no different than what the students would be doing when in P.E.?!?

<snip> "Nobody objected to it. Most of the kids didn't mind because they wanted to get their name cleared," Green said. "It was no different than what the students would be doing when they would be in P.E. We searched everything down to the socks."

So, teachers stand there and inspect naked kids when they dress out for P.E. at this school? WTF?

Who supervised the strip search of the teachers present when the $10 went missing? Not really into peep shows, so not current on the going rate, but $10 seems a pretty cheap ticket for the show a couple of teachers got.

If I were a parent of one of those kids, I sure as hell would be mounting a vigorous effort to make this shit illegal! Not illegal? Teachers ARE NOT LAW ENFORCEMENT officers. As much as I tend to support tight discipline in schools and know teachers face horrible conditions too often, they should not be involved in strip searches.

[wellst0nev0ter]

7. Yeah, The Teachers Were Just "Blowing Off Steam"

Nothing you wouldn't find in an average high school locker room </sarcasm>


Gawd, I want my country back.

[Persimmon]

8. Think Principal Green should be fired?

Contact: Diane Y. Merchant or Wilma C. Green
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail] :

[Divine Discontent]

10. there's a D in front of the name merchant, in that email address. N/T

[Divine Discontent]

11. let em all know how wackjob their TEXAS mentality is...

[e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]

"how we treat the least of these".....

[Dora]

24. Please don't make this a Texas thing.

This kind of bullshit can and does happen anywhere.

[saigon68]

21. I wonder if the FONDLED the children.

This is a sexual assault. The touching of a child's breasts or buttocks.

They are PIGS

[Stinky The Clown]

6. Insult upon insult after insult

This country really has NO moral compass. We are a nation of unthinking, unfeeling, vindictive lunatics.

God help us all.

[VegasWolf]

9. It's just Texas. n/t

[Divine Discontent]

12. oh GREAT, they're coming to FLORIDA!

"June 8-14, 2005, we invite family and friends to join us as we hit the road again for another memorable trip to Disney World in Orlando, Florida."

I suppose they'll make Mickey strip down for 'em too?

[Nevernose]

14. I am not a violent man

But if someone strip-searched my daughter at school, there would be a bloody hell to pay.

[Divine Discontent]

15. exactly!!!!!!!! I HATED GOING TO TEXAS SCHOOLS!!!!!! n/t

[davsand]

16. Looks like we are working on the next crop of home grown terrorists.

If we haven't created enough hate for the US overseas with our invasion and occupation of Iraq and the rest of the Middle East, maybe we better be sure and start growing a few domestic terrorists...

Seems to me that terrorists seem to grow best in places where we have highly restrictive governments and zero civil liberties. If you look at the places where terrorism has been a problem typically, you often find they are places that have not had the benefit of certain protections we have enjoyed here in the US.

Let's do the checklist here:

Free Speech? Well, not exactly free in the US any more. They can put you on airport watch lists and restrict your ability to fly simply because you call for protest or are a political dissident.

Freedom of Religion? Well, sort of--as long as it is the approved Judeo Christian variety. If you are Muslim you could be restrained from flying as a security risk and possibly forced to register with the government (if 46% of Americans polled have their way, anyhow.)

Freedom to Assemble? Well, again, kind of--people who called for protests have been harassed, survailed and restricted in their movements--but you can still go have dinner at your neighbor's house. Union membership has been declared a security risk, so DO be careful what clubs you join.

Freedom in your person? Well, you CAN be patted down if you want to fly and they CAN wiretap your house pretty easily. They want to know what books you read and buy, and restrict your access to certain music. If they want to grab your computer they can and DO, so your your papers really are not all that secure, I guess.

If you are someplace where a crime is suspected they can now strip search you at their discretion (at least if you are a school kid in Texas.)

The government is not putting soldiers in your homes--oh--Iraq doesn't really count--right?

You can STILL own a gun, by gawd, so I guess it is still the US and we are still free--right?? Aren't WE????

-------

I realize you guys might think I'm being flip with the stuff above, but it scares hell out of me when I consider the idea that this strip search in Texas really is demonstrating to kids just how highly civil liberties are regarded now. I'll grant you--school kids have never really enjoyed full protection of their civil rights, but this really got to me when I saw the article.

People revolt with what tools they have at their disposal when faced with restrictive governments. Are they growing and creating the next generation of Unibombers and Timothy McVeighs or are they starting to train the new Jeffersons, Adams' and Franklins?


Laura

[mbperrin]

17. What? No cavity searches? No MRI?

What kinda amateurs we got here? Leave those kids blindfolded standing on a box holding a couple of electrode for a few hours, and I bet someone will confess to something!

Paging Alberto Gonzales! You're needed in the principal's office!

I teach in west Texas, and I hope that no one out here would put up with this kind of shit for one second! (I hope).

[Occulus]

18. This is soooo wrong, on so many levels

A smart kid would be claiming it was a sexual assault. Since it was minors who were strip-searched, it seems to me perhaps it could be seen as an assault.

The cops who did this need to be locked up. No reasonable person would ever have done this to find ten bucks.

[tblue37]

22. It looks as though

no cops were involved. It was just teachers assuming law-enforcement responsibilities. (Of course, it would be just as bad if cops had done it.)

[Amigust]

25. Are oriface searches next? n/t

It only gets worse.

[The Zanti Regent]

26. And it's TEX ASS AGAIN, folks!

Are you going to sit on your ass and let TEX ASS kill YOUR children like they did mine?

Screw TEX ASS and work for secession!