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Big News In The War On Ibuprofen

Jan 16, 2009
By .
Irksome, Law, Reruns

The Supreme Court has granted certiorari in an appeal by the Safford Arizona Unified School District, on the question of whether school officials were justified, under the Fourth Amendment, in strip-searching thirteen year old Savana Redding.  The goal of the search was to determine whether Ms. Redding had smuggled contraband ibuprofen into the school, in violation of a "zero tolerance" drug policy.  An en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals earlier held that a civil suit filed by Ms. Redding could proceed.

Many moons ago, in reviewing this case, I stated the following:

This being the Ninth Circuit, and this being America, it would not surprise me at all if the Supreme Court were to grant certiorari and reverse this holding. While the Circuits might divide on a case as revoltingly silly as this one, if there is a general rule in American jurisprudence on the rights of children suspected of drug possession in school, it is that they have none.

The question boils down to, may adults strip and humiliate a thirteen year old girl for possessing a legal product, so long as the adults are protected by their status as school employees?  Is membership in the American Federation of Teachers the equivalent of a badge?

I stand by what I wrote earlier: If this had happened anywhere but school, they'd all be in jail.

Last 5 posts by Patrick Non-White

14 Comments
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14 Comments

  1. Dave (ND)  •  Jan 16, 2009 @2:35 pm

    Not only would they be in jail, but they'd have sex offender labels for the rest of their lives.

  2. Ken  •  Jan 16, 2009 @2:43 pm

    THis bit from your original post on the case bears repeating:

    Safford Middle School Assistant Principal Kerry Wilson, Administrative Assistant Helen Romero, and School Nurse Peggy Schwallier, you stripped a thirteen year old girl searching for ibuprofen, a drug barely more powerful than aspirin which you can buy in any grocery store.

    What the hell is wrong with you?

  3. Little Raven  •  Jan 16, 2009 @3:54 pm

    You can't honestly believe the Supremes will upload this travesty. Sure, the occasional idiot will make it to Principal level, but for at least 5 of them to make it to the Supreme Court?!?

    I'm working on my cynical facade, but that's just a little too far out there for me.

  4. Patrick  •  Jan 16, 2009 @4:01 pm

    It only takes 4 to grant cert Little Raven, and remember: the school was protecting Savana Redding from drugs!, and from herself.

  5. IrateMom  •  Jan 16, 2009 @5:14 pm

    They should all be fired…and the family should file a suit. This is a no brainer. What is wrong with these people? If they spent more of their energy on what is really wrong with the school system…they would not have the time to waste on humiliating little girls. Idiots.

  6. oneStarman  •  Jan 16, 2009 @5:17 pm

    ORANGE JUMPSUIT SCHOOL UNIFORM – I'm tired of being in prison. I don't want to spend my day strapped to a gurney and wheeled between indoctrination and interrogation. We have sacrificed so many of our basic civil rights and human dignity on the alter of the false god of security. If this is what we teach our children then God Help Us.

  7. Rodney  •  Jan 16, 2009 @5:34 pm

    How can it be lawful that school administrators could strip search anyone? Especially with no law enforcement present. Did they even alert law enforcement?

  8. mark  •  Jan 16, 2009 @6:06 pm

    firstly, it was prescription ibuprofen, not aspirin, secondly, to me this type of behavior from school personnel would be outrageous even if it were heroin. i would have the lot of them fired at the very least. having spaketh so i am sad to report that there is no doubt in my mind that, given the general distain for our constituttion these days, the supremes will find some way to side with the school and hence forth all your little chillen are belong to us! welcome to the real world folks! keep on electing em!

  9. roy ernst  •  Jan 16, 2009 @6:23 pm

    I think that the schools have gone way way too far in their 0 tolerance. I would hope the court rules agains the school and all who were involved. Also they should have to regester as sex offenders/perverts

  10. Becca  •  Jan 16, 2009 @6:50 pm

    OMG! This was done to this 13 year old child for thinking she MAY HAVE HAD DRUGS ON HER? But they had had no prior problems with this child! I do not think so! And most of all for having an over counter drug for pain! Now I sure hope this girl wins in court. These school teachers are really something today. Here is a good example…Parents are not allowed to lay on hand or finger on their own child as if they do the law will be after them so fast and their butts will be in jail so fast. Child services will not take any kind of this from a parent let alone any other adult touching a child.SO WHERE WAS CHILD SERVICES when this was done?????? OOPS! Excuse me this was a school so I guess they can touch a child and most of all a child they had never had a problem with let a lone a drug problem. Who the heck does these schools think they are? From what I understand these schools are to have girls carry clear plastic purses and they also have a police officer to scan the cildren comming into the school so I guess this is not a high crime school if not.SO if not a high crime school then why did they think this girl even had drugs at all? There is no excuse at all for what went on here. They could of held the girl in the office with her not being left out of their site and called the parents into the school and let them know what is going on. Then the parents would have oked the strip search or not and if it was my child I would have never oked that and most of all if my child had never been in trouble for this before. I would have had my lawyer on that phone so fast and maybe I would be in jail by now my self for what I would have done to all these people who had done this to my child. THERE IS NO WAY IF A PARENT IS NOT ALLOWED TO PUT A HAND ON A CHILD OF THEIR OWN THEN A SCHOOL SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO EITHER. How do these parents know if these people at this school was not going to try to rape this young girl? Women or not!Oh this is just something else and I hope these people take this to the highest court and win! I have to get off the soap box now as this makes me so angry!My best wishes go out to this Girl and her family. Stay on this so it does not happen to anyone elese child. And everyone I hope you teach your children if this happens to them scream rape right away! I guess since the school had 0 toletance that since she had no drugs on her they found 0 so I guess in these peoples minds it was ok as to them 0+0=0 so that makes the school save they do not understand 0 tolerance I guess LOL! This is all so crazy for this family and this child to have been going through. I hope people will just home school their children they really would be better off then they can take IBUPROFEN for cramps or headache at home. Please think about home schooling and put these schools out of business!

  11. Sailingwindward  •  Jan 16, 2009 @6:51 pm

    This only proves we have pedophiles working in our school system, these people should be charged with a sex crime and have to register as sex offenders, lucky for them it's not my daughter they would have more than civil problems.

  12. Ron Jeremy  •  Jan 16, 2009 @9:28 pm

    Regardless of the civil suit. The school district should reverse whatever rules they have that allow it to happen. I know the school trustees would acquire serious and permanent medical problems if this was happening in my district and no changes were made.

  13. oneStarman  •  Jan 16, 2009 @10:30 pm

    CHILDREN RIGHTS – For the most part – there are none. When I was in public school, many years ago, it was common for children to be beaten with wooden boards with holes in them in my Junior High School. Oh, how some teachers LOVED to 'give hacks' as the beatings were called. But that was nothing – a man could beat his wife or child half to death and it was considered a 'Family Matter'. Even today, children in schools do not have anything like the constitutional protections that most Americans took for grated – at least before we all became 'enemy combatants' subject to the whims of 'The Decider' – Kids know the abuse this can lead to all too well.

  14. Bob  •  Jun 2, 2009 @9:49 pm

    I love the US legal system. One day we're sending a guy to jail for buying cartoons, the next we're giving people the OK to strip real children. What a joke.