Sunday, April 06, 2008

Did you hear about kids being strip searched at school? What do you think? Do you think police should be doing this instead of school officals? Do you think they should have parental permission? What are your thoughts?


4 comments:

Jennifer Griffin-Wiesner said...

Wow; I'm going to have to read more about this in order to better understand what happened, but on the surface it seems like a blatant violation of her and her parents civil rights. If this had happened to my daughter I would be livid, to say the least. Will perhaps add to these comments when I am better informed.

HaNNaH said...

I will also need to be more informed before I say too much, but it is totally uncalled for to have the school officials be the ones to search her. The police should have been the ones to search her, if anyone. In order to say if the search should be allowed, I will have to rad more on the subject...

Casey said...

Some of you have requested more info so here is a link to an article from ABC: http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/Story?id=4537765.

I kind of feel like this is a form of sexual assault and I wondered if it could ever happen to me. After all this girl got strip searched just because another girl said she had prescription ibuprofin. I don't know about you but I know a lot of girls who, if they hear this, may make a lot of accussations just to humiliate someone else. (Sad but true.) So... I looked in my student handbook and this is what I found.

"School lockers are the property of the school district. At no time does the school district relinquish its exclusive control of lockers provided for the convenience of students. School authorities may conduct an inspection of the interior of lockers and desks for any reason at any time, without notice,without student consent, and without a search warrant.

School officials may inspect the personal possessions of a student and/or a student's person based on a reasonable suspicion that the search will uncover a violation of law or school rules. A search of personal possessions of a student and.or a student's person will be reasonable in its scope and intrusiveness.

Assoon as practicable after a search of personal possessions within a locker pursuant to this policy, the school officials must provide notice of the search to students whose personal possessions were searched unless disclosure would impede an ongoing investigation by police and school officials.

Whenever feasible, a search of a person shall be conducted in provate by a school official of the same sex. A second school official of the same sex shall be present as an observer during the search of a person whenever feasible.

A strip search is a search involving the removal of coverings or clothing from private areas. Mass strip searches, or body cavity searches are prohibited. Strip searches will be conducted only in circumstances involving imminent danger.

A school official conducting any other search may determine when it is appropriate to have a second official present as an observer."

This is ridiculous! It sounds as if not only can the school do these searches, there are times when it may be done by a person of the opposite gender. If there was imminent danger, shouldn't school staff being callinig police instead of forcing a student into a compromising and humilating experience???

And when you think of this in light of all the teacher/student sex scandals!!!!!!

What do your school policies say and how do you feel about them?

Annie said...

For Tylenol? Seriously? This seems really extreme...I know lots of people who have Tylenol or Advil at school and nobody cares. I think if this was the only reason that they searched her, that's insane.