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Middle-School Strip Search Ruled Unconstitutional
yuna49 writes "The US Supreme Court today ruled 8-1 that the strip search of a 13-year-old girl by officials in an Arizona middle school was unconstitutional. However, by a vote of 7-2, the Court also ruled that the individual school officials could not be held personally liable. A suit for damages against the school district itself is still going forward. We discussed this case at length back in March when the Court decided to hear the case on appeal."
This is America, where children are the Enemy.
If you've ever had to be responsible for a bunch of kids, you would understand.
Now, I don't agree with strip searching kids, especially for something stupid like Advil or something. However, the second you state that school officials are not allowed to check your underwear, that's where everything starts getting hidden. Unfortunately, the only way to keep this from being abused and still having some effectiveness would be to publicly allow this type of search, but ban it privately.
It seems that the judge agrees with me. From TFA:
Had Savana been suspected of having illegal drugs that could have posed a far greater danger to herself and other students, the strip search, too, might have been justified, the majority said, in an opinion by Justice David H. Souter.
I also hope that the student that gave the "tip" that this poor girl had pills in her underwear gets an ass-whoopin severe enough to make her grandkids wince when sitting down!
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
Clarence Thomas, who 'asserted that the majority's finding second-guesses the measures that educators take to maintain discipline "and ensure the health and safety of the students in their charge."'
I can't imagine how forcing a 13-year old girl to strip ensures anyone's health and safety, especially since they were looking for IBUPROFIN, for heaven's sake.
The majority agrees with that part. From TFA:
Had Savana been suspected of having illegal drugs that could have posed a far greater danger to herself and other students, the strip search, too, might have been justified, the majority said, in an opinion by Justice David H. Souter.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
Awhile back in a suburb of San Diego, an overzealous administrator had the good idea to round up all of the girls at the dance and check their panties so that the filthy whores wearing thongs(or less) could be sent home to change.
And about that, from the link:
Garvik's sophomore daughter was forced to go home and change before she could enter the dance, although thongs are not barred in the school dress code. The code states that undergarments, including "boxers, tank-top undershirts or underwear" should not be exposed.
Some people with authority(especially those in certain government agencies, but I digress) seem to make up the rules as they go along. That's what makes them dangerous.
It's cool if I forcibly strip-search a 13 year-old girl as long as I'm a school official working on "official business." I can't be held accountable.
But if that same girl willingly texts me a cellphone pic of herself in a bikini, I'm looking at time in hard prison and branded a sex offender for life.
Seems perfectly logical to me.
Here in the US, public schools are typically surrounded by barbed wire, and not a small number have metal detectors at the doors. There's typically even a local police officer patrolling the halls in addition to the hired security.
The general perception of a school in the US as a locked-down secure facility really blurs the line. "Reasonable" persons have a completely different frame of reference over here than they do over there..
Or are your schools just as fucked up as ours? If they are, my hypothesis is totally wrong.
Legalize recreational marijuana. Seriously.
school teachers aren't police, and shouldn't even imagine they have the authority to perform a strip search. if they think the kid has shoved it up his ass - call the cops and get them to do it. that should be the end of this story. it makes me fearful for when i have children, because if i have a child and they are subjected to anything like this i'd probably do something drastic.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
This is an issue of the government conducting an unreasonable search without a warrant. If Justice Thomas did not believe in stare decisis he would have not only ruled the search unconstitutional but he would have held the school personnel liable since confusing precedent is irrelevant.
This is an excellent example of what the strict constructionist crowd fails to understand. When the constitution was written it did not apply to schools at all. It wasn't until the 14th amendment that the fourth amendment applied outside the federal government. The constitution clearly applies to public schools but at the time the 14th amendment was ratified most voters had never attended a public school. I think the notion that schools would function as law enforcement at that time would have been considered absurd.