13-year-old's school strip-search case heads to Supreme Court

[Coffee and Cake]

(CNN) -- The case of a 13-year-old Arizona girl strip-searched by school officials looking for ibuprofen pain-reliever will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court this week.

The justices in January accepted the Safford school district case for review, and will decide whether a campus setting gives school administrators greater discretion to control students suspected of illegal activity than police are allowed in cases involving adults in general public spaces.

The case is centered around Savana Redding, now 19, who in 2003 was an eighth-grade honors student at Safford Middle School, about 127 miles from Tucson, Arizona. Redding was strip-searched by school officials after a fellow student accused her of providing prescription-strength ibuprofen pills.

The school has a zero-tolerance policy for all prescription and over-the-counter medication, including the ibuprofen, without prior written permission.

"In this case, the United States Supreme Court will decide how easy it is for school officials to strip search your child," Adam Wolf, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who is representing Redding, told CNN Radio on Sunday.

Wolf told CNN Radio his client was traumatized by the search.

"School officials undoubtedly have difficult jobs, but sometimes they overreact -- and this was just a clear overreaction," he said.

Redding was pulled from class by a male vice principal, escorted to an office, where she denied the accusations.

Rest of story here: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/19/scotus.strip.search/index.html?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail

[bluestateguy]

1. Public school administrators: The dumbest fucking people you will ever meet

nt

[Warpy]

2. "Zero Tolerance" is the PROBLEM

and that is what needs to be abolished. Room has to be made for common sense. Yes, school officials might not like it when girls swap Midols when needed, but seriously, there are bigger problems than that in their schools now.

In other words, these martinets need to pick their fights a lot better. Clearly, they should have called this kid's parents and let them handle it.

Anything available over the counter should be grounds to send a kid home with a note and that should have been the end of it.

I'm sick of hearing about two bit dictators abusing children like this.

[FiveGoodMen]

3. "and this was just a clear overreaction"

How could they possibly go through with it without realizing it was an "overreaction"?

Sorry, but under no circumstances should a strip search for non-mind-altering pain killers have seemed like an appropriate course of action.

Not for a micro-second.

No excuse.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

4. That was NOT prescription strength Advil.

200 milligrams is the over-the-counter stuff. You can take up to 800 mg at one time.

This is quite discriminatory against girls, because ibuprofen is the only OTC drug that helps menstrual cramps. And young girls quite often have menstrual cramps. Boys don't have any comparable temporary disability.

I had menstrual cramps from the day I started at age 12 until I went through menopause. Cramps were the big health problem I had for years. I had surgery, took drugs and tried every therapy they could think of, and nothing would help my pain and extreme fatigue.

And our society does NOTHING to accept that many women will have to stay home from work for two to four days per month. We have to be macho and never get sick, like the men with the constitution of a horse.

Screw that.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

5. kick

[SeattleGirl]

6. I hope to God this girl wins the case.

OTC ibuprophen? Really?

I'd really like to know how the powers that be came to to the conclusion that a girl who may need ibuprophen for something (or a boy, even) could be such a danger that she needed to be strip-searched.

And I'd also like to wish that vice principal a year's worth of the worst cramps ever, with no way to get meds for it (even OTC stuff), and let's see how he feels then.

[tomreedtoon]

7. What made you think teachers want kids to feel good?

Quite the contrary. Torturing them mentally is their daily activity; they just want to up the ante to causing them physical pain. That's why they bust children for carrying needed drugs or even tampons to school.

Menstrul cramps? Penny-ante stuff. Teachers would love to get their exercise by beating kids daily, and if this were still the Bush Administration, they'd probably get that right.

[Coffee and Cake]

8. A full body cavity search was within the power of the school

"A lawyer for the Safford Unified School District urged the justices to rule that school officials have broad authority to search students. The vice principal in this case had been told some students had pills, and they were to be passed around at lunchtime. Based on that report, "he was entitled to search any place where contraband might reasonably be found," said Matthew Wright, the school district's lawyer.

What about a "body cavity search?" asked Justice Antonin Scalia.

Wright replied that no school official would undertake such a search, but he insisted it would be legal."

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-scotus-strip-search0421,0,2211272.story