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And why does the school board reserve the right to do this — no parental consent required?
Family members said this week that Atlantic high school officials forced five teenage girls to remove their clothes during an investigation into a theft.
The girls' families and their lawyers said the incident at Atlantic High School amounts to a strip-search, which is illegal in Iowa schools.
But school officials said the search was “allowable” under board rules.
The search took place during a gym class after a classmate charged that $100 was stolen from her purse. And it wasn't just stripped down to underwear — one girl was stripped naked. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that no school official has free rein to do intimate searches of students. Making a girl pull the waistband of her underwear away from her body constituted a strip-search, the court ruled. And after the indignities heaped on these girls — the money was not found.
What do you think occurred as a result of this egregious behavior on the part of school officials?
Atlantic Interim Superintendent Dan Crozier has confirmed that an Atlantic administrator had been placed on administrative leave, but did not name the individual. Unconfirmed reports have identified Activities Director Paul Croghan as the individual placed on paid administrative leave, pending further investigation into the incident.
And look at this:
Crozier said the faculty denied the searches were strip-searches, but he added that there are different interpretations of what the term means. “According to the people that we've talked to the first time, and I've talked to them maybe once or twice, they've said it would not fall into that category,” he said. “I'm real careful about saying that because it could be interpreted differently.”
OK, here are additional details. You decide:
Each girl stripped in varying degrees, families and the lawyers said.
Hudson's client, who is 15, “was asked to remove all of her clothing including her undergarments,” he said.
One mother said the girl refused to take off her underwear in front of everyone, but went around a corner and did so.
Some of the girls didn't take off their underwear because it was more revealing than the other girls', making it more obvious that nothing was hidden underneath, said Noethe, one of the lawyers.
Hudson said, “Someone asked if they could just lift up their bra and they were told that wasn't good enough.”
One of Noethe's clients was searched twice, he said.
“She was told to take her clothes off and put them back on, then told to do it again because we need you to take your bra off,” Noethe said.
Is there some other meaning for “strip-search” that I'm unaware of?
29 Comments
HOLY BAT CRAP!They don’t understand the definition of a strip search? Seriously, when are schools going to understand that the laws as written apply to them as well as the rest of us and that includes the kids and the constitution.
The factulty involved need to be fired and arrested. Not nessassarily in that order.
And while I’m on the soap box….why does a student have $100 oh them?
Are they getting the Chicago style pizza in Chicago???
I don’t see any problem with thisI mean, its not like they are making the kids watch the President give a speech or anything.
(Do I really need a sarcasm smiley?)
“Is there some other meaning for “strip-search” that I’m unaware of? “Perhaps it has to involve flaying to count as a strip search?
Seriously though, the ACLU needs to be all over this.
SickA theft never is reason for a strip search. This is completely sick and those officials ought to be doing jail time for third degree sexual assault. The fact that these are minors should add something to the severity of the charge.
LOL @Techbear.
Now I’m no fancy big-city lawyerbut I do believe state law trumps school policy.
In this corner of Iowathey don’t hear about Supreme Court decisions, obviously. They need to get TV coverage from more than FauxNews….
Lock ‘Em UpJust because humiliation was obviously part of their goal, I say lock them up to whatever amounts to child rape, including sex offender registry – all persons involved, male AND female.
And I’m sure this isn’t the only school that allows this kinda crap, so use this extreme instance as an example to all other schools.
What’s Next?
Body cavity searches because some school board thinks it’s allowable?!!
Thank gawdsI have friends in MCLU. They would be the first people I would call, as soon as I got my kids home and settled down.
These poor families- this makes me sick to even imagine what they are going through.
Birthday money from Gramma?Saved up allowance? Money to pay ahead on school lunches?
Any number of explanations pop into this mother’s mind as to why MY teen would have $100 with her…
I always try to make sure she doesn’t have more than $10 or 20, but have also seen times when she would put all she has into her wallet for safe keeping, then forget it’s in there and take it to school by accident.
Anybody have any ideas on what would be permissible in these situations?In this case there is actually that other victim – the one who had a significant amount of money stolen. In other cases, there might be potential victims of violence if weapons are being concealed; and whatever we may feel about the use of various drugs, most people, I presume, believe that our public schools up through high school should be free of drug dealing and drug usage on site.
I’m sure even before the Supreme Court ruling, but certainly now after it, female students are more likely to be viewed as great receptacles for hiding forbidden objects or substances on their persons, since they are unlikely to be searched.
So what do you do if you’re a school administrator or (these days) school security person trying to sort out one of these situations? If you’re doing your job, you have to deal with it right now.
Class Action Law Suit?and the school board better have a very large piggy bank.
Well for startersIf I were a school administrator I wouldn’t break state law. In this situation I would keep the entire class in one place. If I thought someone needed to be searched I would do as the law requires and get parental permission first.
Show meGives a new meaning, too, to the phrase “Show me the money!”
Jesus Halliburton Christ!
Speaking as someone with a law degree: no.
The magic phrase is a search “that shocks the conscience.” Of a rational human being, of course.
The parents, as “next best friend” of the minors involved, need to find the meanest, ugliest torts lawyer in their jurisdiction.
MY NAME IS SUE! HOW DO YOU DO?
lets jump ahead a stepLets say you searched all the Students and found $100. How would you prove it was the stolen hundred. This is just stupid.
What is the definition of child rape in Iowa?
tell them 1. get a lawyer and 2. get their lawyer to call the ACLU affiliate to talk lawyer stuffI’m an activist with my ACLU chapter and it’s the school and library boards I worry about. They play Dick Tracy with no idea of the damage to people or their own liabilities. The police and district attorney at least have been taught what the rules on search and seizure are.
What is hard to understand from a strictly legal point of view isthat doing what these staff people did has been against the law in Iowa since 1986. And taken in conjunction with all the publicity that the recent SCOTUS decision on this very subject has had…how could they not have known they were forbidden to do this and were going to be in big trouble as a consequence?
I wish that a good paper like the Des Moines Register had published the applicable school board guidelines that have been referred to. For that matter, there’s got to be something in some school administration handbook that clearly spells out that students cannot be required to remove their clothing as part of a search.
And I’d still like to know what the approved procedures are when administrators are faced with searches for contraband they suspect to be hidden under someone’s clothing. Such, too, must be written down somewhere.
Child Rape?Come on. This story is very disturbing, and I think all involved should be fired if this is true. But child rape and sex offender registry? Let’s not go off the deep end here.
If there was sexual contact/motive involved, then yes, that’s a different story.
they’re not cops, and they should know thatIf they suspect a crime they should see about getting police and a proper search warrant. School administrators might not know this stuff but a desk sergeant (and not the school rent-a-cop “community resource officer”) might. Strip-searching a teenager! That does “shock the conscience” in any legal setting I can think of, unless there’s an honest-to-God, damn good plausible put-it-before-the-magistrate reason.
I don’t think there are any approved procedures in administrative language. No school district rulebook can excuse this. This requires case law. Especially after the Supremes’ latest ruling. And, as you say, Iowa statutes.
I just hope the school district doesn’t settle. I want binding case law on this trainwreck.
Standard operating procedureI assume they they should be permitted to do what everyone else does when they believe a crime has been committed: call the police.
If I Were The ParentAbsolutely.
If they had the girls “detained” for the time being, they could simply pick up the phone, call the parents and have them come to the school – or in the least, call the police and have a female officer do the strip searching.
Even adult females under arrest are given the dignity of having a female officer do any sort of strip searching on them.
I think everyone involved would probably preferthat any infraction not automatically lead to a teenager or child having a rap sheet for drug crimes, or theft, or weapons possession. If there’s no immediate safety issues, I’d prefer they try Plan B, whatever that is.
I’m sure Steve King told ‘em to ignore the SCOTUS since states are ‘sovereign’……except for when they want to legalize pot.
Children are constitutionally protected by their parentsIf you commit an act on a kid, it is the same as committing that act on the parent. So when they sue you for illegal search and seizure don’t be surprised. Even federal agents and police officers won’t illegally search a child. This was beyond stupid! Add to that the fact that the whole thing was supervised by a male?!? sigh I would want his balls in a sling if it was my kid, that is for darn sure. They could have just as easily isolated the girls and waited for parents or parental permission. People incarcerated at Gitmo get better treatment than this.
I’d push for sex offender registrationI wouldn’t want any of these adults within 500 feet of any church, school or playground…EVER.
Or gay marriage…At least, that’s what they’d like.
Strip searches already questioned by SCThis topic has been recently decided by the SCOTUS, I wonder if it will blatantly apply:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06…