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The case is Safford Unified School District v. Redding
The case involves a 13 year old honors student. Another student was caught with ibuprofen, Motrin, which many young girls and women use to relieve menstrual cramps. Some schools, however, have these "zero tolerance" rules that say all meds are dangerous and therefore cannot be carried by students, even if prescribed.
Anyhow...in order to help her own situation student 1 says she got them from honor student 2. She denied having any so she was called into the office and strip searched by female staff. She had to remove her outer clothing and 'displace' her bra and panties enough that pills would fall out - of course exposing the parts underneath.
Traumatizing I think is an understatement, and she never returned to the school. Her parents went thermonuclear, as I would have, and filed suit. The school system appealed all the way to the US Supreme Court which ruled today.
Result: the court found 8-1 that the lawsuit can proceed against the school disctict and was quite critical of how things were handled, especially given that in 1985 it had given guidance on such searches in another ruling.
The lawsuit against the principal and other participating employees, however, was denied because they supposedly had no knowledge of the unconstitutionality at the time. I really disagree with this part of the ruling, especially as regards the school principal who should know these things as part of his/her school administrator training (most principals these days are not promoted teachers but an education equivalent of an MBA - they can't even teach classes).
The opinion was written by Justice Souter, perhaps his last before retiring. The opinion states that in the search student 2, now a 19 year-old college student, school officials overreacted to vague accusations that the student was violating school policy by possessing the ibuprofen, equivalent to two 200 mg over the counter tablets - the normal dose.
Lacking "was any indication of danger to the students from the power of the drugs or their quantity, and any reason to suppose that Savana was carrying pills in her underwear."
IMO also lacking was even a bit of common sense or empathy.
The case involves a 13 year old honors student. Another student was caught with ibuprofen, Motrin, which many young girls and women use to relieve menstrual cramps. Some schools, however, have these "zero tolerance" rules that say all meds are dangerous and therefore cannot be carried by students, even if prescribed.
Anyhow...in order to help her own situation student 1 says she got them from honor student 2. She denied having any so she was called into the office and strip searched by female staff. She had to remove her outer clothing and 'displace' her bra and panties enough that pills would fall out - of course exposing the parts underneath.
Traumatizing I think is an understatement, and she never returned to the school. Her parents went thermonuclear, as I would have, and filed suit. The school system appealed all the way to the US Supreme Court which ruled today.
Result: the court found 8-1 that the lawsuit can proceed against the school disctict and was quite critical of how things were handled, especially given that in 1985 it had given guidance on such searches in another ruling.
The lawsuit against the principal and other participating employees, however, was denied because they supposedly had no knowledge of the unconstitutionality at the time. I really disagree with this part of the ruling, especially as regards the school principal who should know these things as part of his/her school administrator training (most principals these days are not promoted teachers but an education equivalent of an MBA - they can't even teach classes).
The opinion was written by Justice Souter, perhaps his last before retiring. The opinion states that in the search student 2, now a 19 year-old college student, school officials overreacted to vague accusations that the student was violating school policy by possessing the ibuprofen, equivalent to two 200 mg over the counter tablets - the normal dose.
Lacking "was any indication of danger to the students from the power of the drugs or their quantity, and any reason to suppose that Savana was carrying pills in her underwear."
IMO also lacking was even a bit of common sense or empathy.
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