Thursday, June 25, 2009

Limits set on student strip searches

See the SCOTUSBlog analysis of today's US Supreme Court decision and the court's 8-1 opinion (pdf) placing new limits on when students may be strip searched by public school officials.
Posted by Gritsforbreakfast at 12:08 PM
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13 comments:

Anonymous said...

When it comes to MY kids, The school and ANY of its employees (including their rent a cop) have exactly 0 (zero) seconds to search my kid. If they feel that my child has done something wrong, I had better get a phone call and I will deal with it then and there. One of them lays a hand on my kid for whatever purpose, and I will lay my hands on them.

My child is exactly that, MY CHILD! The state does not own them, nor do they have rights to them. If my kid is suspected of doing wrong. sit with them in a room until I get there and I will find out what is going on.

6/25/2009 02:32:00 PM
Charlie O said...

It amazes me that this went to the Supreme Court in this first place. It took those 8 (barring Clarence the perv) to determine that there's something wrong with strip searching a 13 year old for freaking ADVIL!!!! I'm with Anon 2:32. If it were my kid, there would have been major need for lots of Advil by school administrators.

6/25/2009 02:50:00 PM
Anonymous said...

The state not only do they own your children, but they own you! We are all slaves to the government, you just don't know it. You're not free, please don't kid yourself!

I do agree with you that if any school official or government official touched my child, there would be a front page story of a massacre on those officials.

6/25/2009 02:54:00 PM
Anonymous said...

Wise up parents, take your kids out of public schools.

6/25/2009 02:58:00 PM
Anonymous said...

Should have been 9-0, but 8-1 is close enough. I hope this sends a loud and clear message!

6/25/2009 04:23:00 PM
Anonymous said...

I believe Savana was forced to remove her outer clothing, and subjected to this assault and humiliation for prescription IBUPROFEN. This is the active ingredients in Advil and Motrin, folks. Just writing this comment gets my heart pumping quickly from the shear ridiculousness of the actions of those school officials. It is absolutely maddening, to say the least. Those 'officials' should have criminal charges brought against them, and should have handled this conflict differently. I completely agree with 2:32 in this one.

6/25/2009 05:16:00 PM
Anonymous said...

For 2:58, not all of us are financially equipped to send our children to a private school. For the most part, I have no complaints with our public schools. It is always the 'bad apple' that spoils it for the whole bunch-and that was this school in Arizona.

6/25/2009 05:20:00 PM
National Coalition for Child Protection Reform said...

I'm glad so many of my fellow liberals, on the U.S. Supreme Court and elsewhere, are standing up for the Fourth Amendment rights of children.

I wonder how many of them, however, were perfectly prepared to trample on those rights in child abuse investigations by supporting SB 1440.

The same kind of stripsearch as tool place in the case at issue before the Supreme Court is common across the country in child abuse cases.

Defenders of unlimited CPS power will say child abuse investigations are different. They’ll argue that in those cases, the people doing the searching are looking for bruises, not drugs, so they’re doing it for the child’s own good. (Of course, that’s also what they say whenever they haul a child off to foster care.)

But when school officials are stripsearching a student looking for drugs they’re presumably doing it for the good of an entire school full of children, yet the Supreme Court still said no. And, of course, if the child has not been bruised – as is likely when there is no more than, say, an anonymous phone call alleging abuse -- then the only people who have hurt the child are the people who stripsearched her or him.

But the Supreme Court decision also showed, once again, that my fellow liberals don’t have a monopoly on inconsistency. Just look at who dissented.

Richard Wexler
Executive Director
National Coalition for Child Protection Reform
www.nccpr.org

6/25/2009 07:55:00 PM
Anonymous said...

I'm glad so many of my fellow liberals

Seriously? You think this is a liberal or conservative issue?

Go to hell.

6/26/2009 12:16:00 AM
Anonymous said...

I agree with 12:16. This is NOT a liberal, nor conservative issue. This is an American issue. If you are a parent/grandparent and are not outraged by what occurred to this girl, then you might want to rethink what is important to you. I will agree that there are instances where it is prudent for a child to have a pat down, if a weapon is involved or suspected, however only if there is a serious threat to all those around the child should this be done.

6/26/2009 01:14:00 AM
dirty harry said...

The thing to remember here, is that a public school district is a local government entity. As such, the courts have ruled in the past that when you or your kids enter public school grounds, you park certain constitutional rights at the door, and are subject to whatever rights the local district policy allows you. I believe though, that this incident with the strip search may be the tipping point to change this. Although, keep in mind that is wasn't the "strip search" itself that was the issue, but that school officials could not show enough probable cause to warrant such an intrusive search. DON'T LOSE THIS THOUGHT!

(Not to get off the subject here, but you TYC employees that are getting patted down when you come to work everyday, are you paying attention?)

As a student/special education advocate, I have always been surprised how parents have no idea the danger their children are in whenever school personnel suspect them of wrongdoing. I tell parents to instruct their children to say NOTHING to school personnel if they are accused of any wrongdoing without parents or a legal representative being present. Also, I tell them that if their children are old/responsible enough, instruct them to NEVER allow school personnel to detain them, and immediately leave school grounds any way possible and then call the parents to come pick them up. Your kids have more rights on the street corner than they do on public school grounds.

6/26/2009 09:58:00 AM
Anonymous said...

Dirty harry said:"(Not to get off the subject here, but you TYC employees that are getting patted down when you come to work everyday, are you paying attention?)
I don't see it as the same issue, I am not a child going to a public school, but an employee going to work in a secure setting. I am subject to search. period. BTW it doesn't happen every day. Usually they wand you. I did have a problem 3 years ago, when I used to have to remove clothing because the stupid stand up metal detector kept beeping. It was set too sensitive and picked up the shrapnel left over from my air force days. I just called the bluff, followed the orders given and kept stripping down until they saw I was willing to go the full monte. The out come was the detector was recalibrated and the wands are used on everyone.

Botton line, strip searching children is bad.
Ham2mtr

6/26/2009 11:00:00 AM
Anonymous said...

I have come to understand totally how little rights our children have in public schools.
My 11 year old autistic daughter threw a book at her teacher. The teacher was not hurt. The school and their "rent a cop/cop in their pocket pressed felony assault charges against her. This works for them as it usually results in the parent removing their child from the school or the school getting to send the kid to a juvinile justice program.
The courts are treating us and her like crimnals. It does not matter that she was provoked and her federal rights under IDEA were violated by the school.
Texas schools and justice are a terrifying place. You have no rights......once your child is accused of something.

7/05/2009 08:19:00 PM

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