Supreme Court to Hear Case About School Strip-Search of 13-year-old Girl

[Facial_King]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/24/us/24savana.htm?_r=1

Excerpt:

The search by two female school employees was methodical and humiliating, Ms. Redding said. After she had stripped to her underwear, “they asked me to pull out my bra and move it from side to side,” she said. “They made me open my legs and pull out my underwear.”

Ms. Redding, an honors student, had no pills. But she had a furious mother and a lawyer, and now her case has reached the Supreme Court, which will hear arguments on April 21.

===

Can we have a mature discussion about the societal ramifications of all this?

Your thoughts?

 

[Namreg]

twice as strong as advil... OMG, the damage she could have caused with that...

but still, i think the school was right to do something about it, but that something should have involved calling her parents and not a strip search.

 

[BlueBalls]

You're allowed to strip search 13 year olds now? On a hunch?

 

[D-rock]

I don't understand why a school would search anybody's personal possessions at all for anything less then there being an incredibly imminent danger, like them having very reasonable cause to belive they have a weapon. Even if a school really had a very, very, very, extremely good reason to believe a student had something they shouldn't, like drugs, why wouldn't they just contact local law enforcement authorities and their parents at that time, let them come to the school, and let them handle it instead while they sat the student down and watched them to make sure they didn’t’ do anything until they got there? If nothing else it would save the school a ton of trouble and would make a lot more sense.

 

[stampede2873]

I wasn't aware that Ibuprofen had developed a following in the teen drug community. Damn those Ibuprofen commercials.... damn them to hell, getting all those teenagers, all numb and high! :rofl:

But seriously, if Redding was an honor student and had no history of problems or being in trouble, then the teachers were wrong in listening to 2 other students blaming her for alcohol and the pills. The strip search of a 13 year old girl with no real probable cause is rediculous and I hope she wins her court case.

If the school administrators trully believed that this girl had illegal drugs, they should have kept her in the office and called the cops and her parents. This way if the police deemed it necessary for a strip search it would have been conducted with a parent present as she is under age. But this was not the case and the school system should lose the court case and pay damages.

 

[Facetious]

Let me know what they say when it's over . . .
gotta 'nuff on my plate already.
Besides, I don't have school aged kids, so why . . .:tongue:

Socialjusticesocialjusticesocialjusticesocialjusticesocialjusticesocialjusticesocialjusticeactivists

 

[ChefChiTown]

Eh, I don't know what to think about this. My first thought was...

"If they HAD found pills, would this even be in the news?"

 

[Boothbabe]

And your next thougth probably was "she only has herself to blame"

 

[ChefChiTown]

And your next thougth probably was "she only has herself to blame"

If she HAD pills, then yeah.

 

[Namreg]

remember, he also blames people for being in guantanamo bay for being brown and looking muslim-ish.

 

[Shindekudasai]

Whatever drugs she would have had on her if, in my opinion a teacher or any other employee at a school should not be allowed to strip search anybody, much less a 13-year-old girl. That's the job of law enforcement or the parents. I my opinion it would already be "borderline" if the police would do it.

Well, we (Germans), the Japanese, the Russians, the Italian...we all had our turn with totalitarianism...seems like it's time for the US to carry that torch... because I kinda get the impression that things like this happen with an alarmingly increasing rate in the US.

 

[Namreg]

ja... noch 4 jahre, dann gibt's Fuehrerin Palin und Reichsmarschall Cheney, mit Limbaugh als propaganda minister.. was er ja sowieso quasi schon ist

 

[ChefChiTown]

remember, he also blames people for being in guantanamo bay for being brown and looking muslim-ish.

Are you serious? I really hope you aren't.

 

[Namreg]

well you do always seem to blame people for something that is not their fault, like with that sexting girl who killed herself. of course she should not have texted a naked pic around, but we as adults (i'm assuming you are one) know a lot of things that teenagers do not and therefore can make better decisions (except for the occasional adult idiot... still no GWB/condoleezza sextape? /jk).

the school officials should have obviously informed the parents of their concerns instead of doing this, but i guess they are idiots as well... that such people are allowed to teach children is disgusting.

 

[ChefChiTown]

well you do always seem to blame people for something that is not their fault, like with that sexting girl who killed herself. of course she should not have texted a naked pic around, but we as adults (i'm assuming you are one) know a lot of things that teenagers do not and therefore can make better decisions (except for the occasional adult idiot... still no GWB/condoleezza sextape? /jk).

the school officials should have obviously informed the parents of their concerns instead of doing this, but i guess they are idiots as well... that such people are allowed to teach children is disgusting.

Not their fault? So, if this girl DID have pills on her, it wouldn't be her fault that she got caught with them?

And, just for the record, I've never said what these teachers did was right. I even said that I'm not sure what to think about it.

 

[Namreg]

so you are you saying then that all students should be strip searched because they might have pills on them?

 

[Facial_King]

Originally Posted by Boothbabe:
"And your next thougth probably was "she only has herself to blame"

If she HAD pills, then yeah.

Firstly, the pills at issue were the equivalent of two Advils.

Secondly, Chef, did you read the article? Esp. this:

"In a friend-of-the-court brief in Ms. Redding’s case, the federal government said the search of her was unreasonable because officials had no reason to believe she was “carrying the pills inside her undergarments, attached to her nude body, or anywhere else that a strip search would reveal."

 

[ChefChiTown]

so you are you saying then that all students should be strip searched because they might have pills on them?

When did I come close to say anything like that?

Firstly, the pills at issue were the equivalent of two Advils.

Secondly, Chef, did you read the article? Esp. this:

"In a friend-of-the-court brief in Ms. Redding’s case, the federal government said the search of her was unreasonable because officials had no reason to believe she was “carrying the pills inside her undergarments, attached to her nude body, or anywhere else that a strip search would reveal."

Once again, where have I said that what these teachers did was right?

 

[Namreg]

the issue isn't whether they found pills, but that they stripsearched a 13 year old without her parent's consent based on a vague suspicion; and even if they had proof of her bringing pills to school this would still be illegal, they're a school, not a police station.

i'm beginning to think you are trolling.

 

[ChefChiTown]

the issue isn't whether they found pills, but that they stripsearched a 13 year old without her parent's consent based on a vague suspicion; and even if they had proof of her bringing pills to school this would still be illegal, they're a school, not a police station.

i'm beginning to think you are trolling.

Once again dude, when did I say that what they did was right? Seriously, you are assuming all of this even though it's perfectly clear that I have never said that what they did was right.