Court Rules Student’s Strip Search Was Unconstitutional

Jump to Comments

The American Civil Liberties Union praised a federal appellate court ruling that stated school officials had violated the constitutional rights of a 13-year-old Arizona girl who was strip searched when a classmate alleged she was possessing ibuprofen.

The court ruling makes such strip searches illegal when a third party, such as another student makes broad accusations to get themselves out of trouble.

Adam Wolf, an attorney with the ACLU Drug Law Reform Project and co-counsel in the case with the law firms Humphrey & Petersen and McNamara, Goldsmith, Jackson & Macdonald said on Friday, “This ruling is a victory for our fundamental right to privacy, sending a clear signal that such traumatizing searches have no place in America’s schools.”

The case focused on an eighth grade honor roll student Savana Redding who attends Safford Middle School in Safford, Arizona who was removed from her classroom on October 8, 2003 by the vice principal, Kerry Wilson. Another student had prescription strength ibuprofen which is the equivalent of two Advil. During questioning of that student it was alleged that Redding had given her the pills. Redding had no history of disciplinary problems or substance abuse yet was questioned on the allegations. Redding told the principal that the pills were not hers and agreed to a search of her possessions. After finding nothing in the girl’s backpack an administrative assistant took Redding to the school nurse for a strip search as ordered by Wilson.

The school nurse had the child strip to her bra and panties. She was then orderd to expose her breasts and to pull her underwear out at the crotch exposing her pelvic area. The strip search also revealed none of the ibuprofen pills.

In response to today’s court victory, Redding said, “I took my case to court because I wanted to make sure that school officials wouldn’t be able to violate anyone else’s rights like this again. This was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life, and I am relieved that a court has finally recognized that the Constitution protects students from being strip searched in schools on the basis of unreliable rumors.”

The strip search was undergone only because of claims from another student facing punishment. There was no attempt to corroborate those accusations prior to the strip search with other students or teachers. There was no evidence that Redding was trying to hide the pills in her underwear nor had the child who had accused Redding in the first place ever suggested that Redding was hiding the pills on her person. There was no attempt to contact Redding’s parents prior to the strip search.

“A reasonable school official, seeking to protect the students in his charge, does not subject a thirteen-year-old girl to a traumatic search to ‘protect’ her from the danger of Advil,” the court wrote in today’s opinion. “We reject Safford’s effort to lump together these run-of-the-mill anti-inflammatory pills with the evocative term ‘prescription drugs,’ in a knowing effort to shield an imprudent strip search of a young girl behind a larger war against drugs.”

“It does not take a constitutional scholar to conclude that a nude search of a 13-year-old girl is an invasion of constitutional rights. More than that: it is a violation of any known principle of human dignity,” the court continued.

The court also ruled that because such a search is deemed unconstitutional Kerry Wilson cannot claim immunity and is liable financially.

The case is, Redding v. Safford Unified School District, No. 05-15759.

1 Comment

Filed under children, crime, education, united states