Stripped Of Her Rights
I hate watching the news on tv, but I happened to catch about 30 seconds of it last night. The Supreme Court is now hearing a very peculiar case.
The case is over whether a public school has the right to conduct a strip search on one of its students [in this case, a 13 year old girl]. As I watched this story on the news, I asked my self aloud “what possible compelling interest can there be to justify strip searching a 13 year old girl at her school?”
Well, the girl was accused of hiding something very dangerous–a few ibuprofen pills.
Seriously.
The school decided to search the girl–an honor student with no history of being in trouble–because another student was caught with the pills and falsely said that the pills came from this girl.
After searching her belongings, the school subjected her to a strip search, searching her bra and panties. For a couple of Advil.
The fact that this case has made it all the way to the Supreme Court boggles my mind. For one, this girl obviously has a right to privacy. She also has a 4th Amendment right to protection against unreasonable search and seizure. And she was searched because of suspicion that she had a legal, over the counter drug which has been approved for use in people of her age.
I dont know why the school decided to search this girl at all, especially a strip search, and especially without the permission of her parents… For a couple of Advil.
I hope that the Supreme Court does the right thing and dismisses the case. And I hope that afterwords, the parents sue the school for a lot of money.
Oh, and by the way–no Advil was found during the search.
Americanly Yours,
Phred Barnet
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One problem, if the school is a public one (I’m assuming it is) then suing the school is simply suing the public coffers. Lawyers get rich, taxpayers get screwed. I don’ t know what it would take to sue the individual actors personally, but obviously there’s a lot less money to be had there than suing the school system.
This could bend into another rant, but common sense needs to be brought back to the enforcement of school rules. 365 day suspensions for water pistols and toy gun key chains doesn’t make any sense either…
1would it surprise you if i said that privatization of schools is the solution to the problems that you have stated?
2If the public schools get bad enough, there will be private schools started that are more affordable because there will be a market for it.
3there already is a market for private schools. one problem though is that people who send their students to private schools essentially have to pay for school twice–once in property and other taxes, and once in private school tuition.
private schools can actually educate children for about half of what if costs public schools to do so. i have the information, but im gonna save it for when i post about schools
4Privatization of schools is an entirely different can of worms altogether, which may or may not help discourage situations like this in the future. Unfortunately in this instance, what’s done is done.
5amen
6You know when I was in highschool running wild I seem to remember hearing a few stories about people being searched in similar fashion. I wonder what exactly the search entailed however. Was it just a bra shake? Or was it a squat down and cough search? Either way it need not have happened, especially on the word of another student…..You know…if people waive their rights they they wave their rights….whats the world coming to….
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