Unreasonable Search

[groovedaddy]

The Supreme Court has long struggled to balance the privacy rights of students against schools’ need to keep campuses safe. On Tuesday, the court hears arguments in a suit brought on behalf of a 13-year-old girl who was strip-searched based on a fellow student’s false report that she had possessed ibuprofen pain-relief pills.

The invasion of privacy was extreme and the security rationale weak. The court should rule, as a lower appellate court did, that the search was unconstitutional.

Savana Redding was an honors student at a middle school in Safford, Ariz., with a clean discipline record. A friend of Savana’s, who was found in possession of pain relievers, told school authorities that Savana had given her 400-milligram ibuprofen pills, a prescription-level dose of the pain reliever in over-the-counter Advil and Motrin, used to treat headaches and menstrual cramps.

Based on this information, a male assistant principal had Savana taken out of class and strip-searched by two female employees. Savana was told to pull her bra in a way that exposed her breasts, and to pull out her underwear to expose her pelvic area. Savana, who was too scared to refuse, later called the search “the most humiliating experience” in her life. No drugs were found.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/20/opinion/20mon1.html?th&emc=th

[Taverner]

1. Jeez, where to start? The stupidity of "zero tolerance" or the sexual molestation of this young girl

This was not a legitimate search - this was sexual molestation pure and simple. Doesn't matter which sex did it.

[jody]

2. Will liberal justices oppose conservative justices & which side will support Redding? n/t

[LiberalEsto]

3. The Washington Pest is pro-strip search

Sorry I can't post the link; you have to sign up for access. I get the Pest delivered.

Their editorial says the Supremes should strike down the lower court ruling because "School officials must have the flexibility to act clearly and decisively to avert all manner of danger."

Ah yes, the deadly menace of a Midol pill.

I am just shaking my head at this insane nonsense. Back in the 1960s, the fluorescent lighting at my high school gave me terrible headaches, so I often carried Excedrin or aspirin, not to mention Midol for those "special" days. I never shared my deadly drugs, never overdosed, never blew up the school. I don't think our school administrators would have dreamed of strip searching us. A few years after I graduated, drugs became an issue, and there were locker searches. But holy moly, a strip search for ibuprofen?

[groovedaddy]

4. Isn't this what our veterans fought and died for? n.t

[groovedaddy]

5. More

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/us/22search.html?_r=1&th&emc=th