School Strip-Search of 13 Year-Old Student Ruled Unconstitutional

 A case involving Safford Middle School in Arizona, taken by the courts for review in January of this year has been settled. Today the Supreme Court, in an 8-1 vote, ruled that an investigation performed by the Safford Middle School based on nearly no evidence, resulting in a strip-search of a 13 year-old, 8th grade honor roll student, violated the Fourth Amendment ban on “unreasonable searches and seizures.” A federal appeals court also found the search “traumatizing” and illegal.

Savana Redding, then 13, now 19 was strip-searched by school officials in Safford, Arizona after a fellow classmate was busted with prescription strength ibuprofen. The student claimed that Redding was who provided the supply. After being removed from class, Redding's belongings such as her backpack, pockets and locker were searched and school officials found nothing. To take it further, the school nurse accompanied by another female instructed Redding to strip down to just her underwear. Again at this point nothing was found. Next she was instructed to pull out and shake her bra and panties, exposing herself in the process and again, not one pill of any kind was found.

In an affidavit, Redding said, “The strip search was the most humiliating experience I have ever had. I held my head down so that they could not see that I was about to cry.”

The Safford Middle School carries a zero tolerance for all medications. It doesn't matter if they are prescriptions or over-the-counter. If you don't have prior written permission from home to have them, you don't get to have them in your possession and apparently they will go to any length to adhere to that policy, giving the school rights to violate our children's bodies. That is until today anyway.

I know that schools all over have the courts on their side when it comes to our children's rights to some extent to protect them. We have seen that in some cases searches are necessary, due to end results of violence and crime within the school. But where do we draw the line? It's very apparent that the line was crossed in this case by leaps and bounds and I commend the girls family for pushing the case as much as they did and no matter how long it took. This poor girl had never been in trouble a day in her life and the only evidence they had to strip-search her was the fact that another student “said” she had prescription pills to hand out. That is supposed to take away our child's rights to their body? Why wasn't the child that was found with pills on them strip-searched too if they are so stringint with their “zero tolerance” policy?

Now that the Supreme Court has stepped up and ruled in favor of Savana Redding, the Safford United School District No. 1 could very easily be held liable for the strip-search violation. What were these school staff members thinking when they were violating this poor girl? Did not one of them stop and think that maybe their “school policies” have gone too far? Let me know what you think here or on Twitter at @HellenWyeth.