Strip Search Of Teen Deemed Unreasonable By Court
Posted by: From Arkansas in Are You Kidding Me?, Shame of America on Jul 15 2008
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A U.S. court of appeals, in a split decision, has overturned a court ruling in Arizona. Because of a tip from another teen, a 13 year old girl was taken to the principal’s office and strip searched to see if she had any ibuprofen which is against the rules to have at school. She was, in my opinion, treated very badly over an over-the-counter drug that anyone could have at any time. Are you kidding me?
What amazes me is that the court ruling was a split (6-5) decision. Any person with a drop of humanity can see that there was absolutely no call for this action by a school especially on a simple tip from another student who could have something against that girl. She was humiliated. I cannot see any reason whatsoever that would include such a drastic action by the school without more evidence of such a thing. Plus, this infraction could have been handled better by calling in a parent who could have done the search if they needed that.
This was simply too much for too little. We are talking about ibuprofen here. Aren’t they getting a bit drastic for such a little thing? What would have happened if it had been an illegal drug? That would have justified it but this does not. Don’t school officials get it that students do this to each other? Don’t they get it that such a drastic action should only happen if a student is known to have much more harmful drugs? That school system, in Safford, Arizona, deserves the SHAME OF AMERICA award for stupidity in the handling of what should have been a small incident.
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4 Comments
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You are right. It is shameful that the school did this against the will of the girl, and her parents. Were the parents even notified? A strip search…who did it, who decided that it was necessary? Who was the “tipster” who did such a horrible wrong with the FAKE ‘tip’. Why didn’t the school check out any of this before violating the innocent girl?
Apparently, the parents did not know about this until afterwards. The strip search was done at the principal’s office. No idea who did it. The principal decided that it was necessary. The tip was from a classmate.
I have no idea why the school did not check these things out before taking action. I certainly would have done so. Especially in these times when everything can be turned into a lawsuit, you would think they’d do SOME checking first. Apparently, they did not do that.
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Actually, such treatment doesn’t surprise me a bit. Why? The kind of people who would ban something as innocuous as ibuprofen are exactly the kind who would subject a kid to such humiliation.
It’s become a strange, strange world indeed. At what point, exactly, did society become so psychotic?
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Actually, it was when sin entered the world. But it is getting worse and worse. These schools are so paranoid that they will not allow a simple thing like aspirin into the school.
If a kid has meds to take, it would be better to take them at home. The school nurse has to handle all meds for the kids. And it has happened that she or he was not there when the kid needed it.
I can think of several conditions that would get worse if the nurse simply was not there.
The problem is that the schools have gone from one extreme to the other. No child should be humiliated like that. No kid should have to go through a strip search at school ever. If they suspect a kid of illegal drugs then call the police and let them handle it. The schools have overreached themselves especially on this one.
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