Supreme Court To Decide If Schools Have The Right To Make Your Child Take Their Clothes Off

Listen to the NPR story here. 
Read at CNN


"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
                                                         4th amendment of the Bill of Rights


The story is that Savana, a 13 year old girl in Arizona, was forced to strip down, bare naked, in front of two school administrators.  They found nothing.  They chose to search her because a student found with 400mg of Ibuprofen (two Advils) said she got them from Savana.   No parents were contacted, no permission given.  Surprisingly, she is suing the school district for their reckless and perverted invasion of her privacy.  The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decided that her 4th amendment right not to be subjected to an unreasonable search had been violated and that the school was liable for damages.    The supreme court took interest and decided to hear arguments in the case of Safford v. Redding on April 21, 2009.  It sounds like the justices want to preserve a school's ability to "protect" students from the harm of drugs, even if this means invading their privacy.  Chief Justice John Roberts, according to news reports, was the least inclined to believe that strip searching students was unreasonable. 

Let's Review:

Last time I checked, when an adult forces a child to take their clothes off, that is called sexual abuse?

If you want your enemies to get strip searched, just say that they are passing out drugs?

In medicine, if you are going to exam a child, especially if it requires removing clothes, there is going to be a parent present.  But a school nurse and secretary are MORE trustworthy and qualified than physicians?


I'm incensed.  I understand the opposition to my view is that, if she was passing out cyanide or meth or ecstasy tablets and chidren died, that would be horrible.  I'm pretty sure that drugs at school is not a new problem.  Why is it that after all these years, it's time to start strip searching kids? 

Minors are being branded as sex offenders for taking pictures of themselves on their cell phones but, John Roberts thinks it's ok for school officals to make you take off your clothes in person?  That sounds like molestation to me.  The school district should be more concerned about allegations of impropriety.  That's true, but school metal detectors seem like a much more effective way to protect students, but most school aren't using them. 

Perhaps kids would be safer if you taught them not to take pills they find at school.  I see the danger in students inappropriately using and possessing medications at school.  But I would much rather hear that kids were smoking marijuana in the bathroom at my child's school than that they were randomly strip searching to look for Advil.  Thinking back to my days in school, every school administrator I ever met needed to get a life.  They have a lot of responsibility on their hands but this is really weak. 


Am I completely off?  What do you think?