Stripped of Justice

I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to legal topics. My last blog post so long ago was about a Supreme Court case, and here I am back with another. I thought I was indignant and angry about the last case I discussed, but life has a way of surprising you. Enter Safford Unified School District v. Redding, which makes me feel ill whenever I think about its possible implications. A good synopsis of the case and other related cases comes from USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/2009-04-15-stripsearch_N.htm ), but I’ll also provide my own brief summary:

At Safford Middle School (in Arizona), a student is caught with prescription-strength Ibuprofen (a couple of pills worth), prohibited by the school’s anti-drug policy. When she is asked who provided her with the drugs, the student implicates Savana Redding, an 8th-grade honors student with no history of any disciplinary problems. Savana is brought out of class to the office and questioned about the drugs, about which she claims to have never seen before. She allows her backpack to be searched, which reveals no drugs or other contraband. Let’s step back for a minute. Say that you’re the administrator in charge here. what is your next course of action? A) Let Savana go back to class because she’s never been a problem student and the only evidence you have against her is the word of another student who was just caught with Ibuprofen, cigarettes, and other contraband, B) Call Savana’s parents before making any more invasive searches, C) Have the school nurse and a female administrative assistant take Savana into another room and strip search her for drugs, or D) Hold Savana in detention and try to get some more corroborating information. If you answered ‘C,’ you are both correct and either cynical or you already know the story about this case. So a 13 year-old girl was ordered to remove her clothes and then to pull out her bra and underwear and shake then to prove that the didn’t have any drugs on her person. It was at about this point in my reading of what happened that I felt like I was living in the Twilight Zone. What in the name of all that is holy were these school officials thinking?

Now, I do admit that the school officials had some cause for concern. Prescription drugs are the second most commonly abused substance among 12-17 year-olds after marijuana, and there had already been prescription drug abuse going on in the school, with one boy becoming violently ill after consuming drugs given to him by a schoolmate. The boy who got sick from prescription pills stated that other (unnamed) students had been bringing drugs to school, and that morning had come to the school’s vice-principal and told him that some students were planning on taking pills during lunch (he also handed over a pill when he volunteered this information). Preventing drug and substance use among students is a worthy cause, but I disagree with the extreme method utilized.

In no reasonable estimation could anyone think that Savana had drugs on her person. I understand searches of backpacks, pockets, lockers, desks, and other related places on mere suspicion. When you’re a student at school, you have less (waaaay, waaaay less) privacy than an adult in similar circumstances. But strip searches? Really? How could that possibly be appropriate in a non life-threatening situation? there weren’t any allegations of Savana having a gun or other weapon. Nor was there suspicion of any lethal substances, but just a pill no stronger than, say, Advil. The vice-principal was simply overzealous and acted completely out of proportion to the possible threat level.

The case is infuriating enough, but to make it worse, the mother of the child who was strip searched had to appeal to the San Francisco 9th Circuit Court of Appeals after a trial court ruled that the school administrators did not violate Savana Redding’s rights. Shockingly, the 9th Circuit Court proceeded to rule 2-1 in favor of the school before the entire 9th Circuit Court overruled the first decision 6-5 in a second hearing. Having read the decisions by both the initial 3-judge ruling and the full Court ruling, I am amazed that it was such a close call. Were I a parent who had my child strip searched in middle school, especially for such a patently poor reason, I would need someone to restrain me from throttling the person in charge of making the decision. Suspicion of drugs be damned! Even if one is a student, the Bill of Rights does not become invalid once one crosses onto school property (there is such a thing as the 4th Amendment, after all–unreasonable search and seizure, anyone?). It’s worth noting that Savana found the strip search to be the most humiliating moment of her life, and is still haunted by it years later at the age of 19.

I’m hoping that the Supreme Court will rule in favor of the parent, but it seems to be divided, so that’s not a guarantee by any means. My bottom line concern? If strip searches are okayed in this circumstance, when would they ever be disallowed? The Supreme Court desperately needs to set down some guidelines and checks to the power of school administrators. The case is indeed very complex, so I don’t think I can go into all the details in one blog post without running it to a 3000-4000 word length or more. Over the next few days, I’ll be exploring several topics, including strip searches in general, body image of  teens (especially as relating to females), the war on drugs and zero-tolerance policies, my take on the Supreme Court, and my feelings about justice regarding those who have no power or political voice.

-Josh

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