In an Arizona case, administrators were worried about campus safety, while the student just felt humiliated.Reporting from Safford, Ariz. -- When Savana Redding, now 19, talks of what happened to her in eighth grade, it is clear that the painful memories linger.
She speaks of being embarrassed and fearful and of staying away from school for two months. And she recalls the "whispers" and "stares" from others in this small eastern Arizona mining town after she was strip-searched in the nurse's office because a vice principal suspected she might be hiding extra-strength ibuprofen in her underwear.If limits on searches are imposed, the school district warns, its ability to keep all drugs out of its schools would be reduced.
In this case, said school district lawyer Matthew Wright, the vice principal was concerned because one student had gotten seriously ill from taking unidentified pills."That was the driving force for him. If nothing had been done, and this happened to another kid, parents would have been outraged," Wright said.She first learned she was in trouble when Vice Principal Kerry Wilson entered math class one morning and told her to come with him to the office.
He was in search of white pills.
"He asked if he could search my backpack. I said, 'Sure,' " she recalled. When nothing was found, Wilson sent Savana to the nurse's office, where the nurse and an office assistant were told to "search her clothes" for the missing pills.Savana said she kept her head down, embarrassed and afraid she would cry. After removing her pink T-shirt and black stretch pants, she was told to pull her underwear to the side and to shake so any pills there could be dislodged.
It was "the most humiliating experience" of her young life, she said.
"We did not find any pills during our search of Savana," Wilson reported.
When her mother arrived at the school to pick her up, another student called out to her: "What are you going to do about them strip-searching Savana?"Upset and angry, April Redding said she marched to the principal's office, then to the superintendent's office nearby. Both denied at first knowing that a student had been strip-searched.
source
She speaks of being embarrassed and fearful and of staying away from school for two months. And she recalls the "whispers" and "stares" from others in this small eastern Arizona mining town after she was strip-searched in the nurse's office because a vice principal suspected she might be hiding extra-strength ibuprofen in her underwear.If limits on searches are imposed, the school district warns, its ability to keep all drugs out of its schools would be reduced.
In this case, said school district lawyer Matthew Wright, the vice principal was concerned because one student had gotten seriously ill from taking unidentified pills."That was the driving force for him. If nothing had been done, and this happened to another kid, parents would have been outraged," Wright said.She first learned she was in trouble when Vice Principal Kerry Wilson entered math class one morning and told her to come with him to the office.
He was in search of white pills.
"He asked if he could search my backpack. I said, 'Sure,' " she recalled. When nothing was found, Wilson sent Savana to the nurse's office, where the nurse and an office assistant were told to "search her clothes" for the missing pills.Savana said she kept her head down, embarrassed and afraid she would cry. After removing her pink T-shirt and black stretch pants, she was told to pull her underwear to the side and to shake so any pills there could be dislodged.
It was "the most humiliating experience" of her young life, she said.
"We did not find any pills during our search of Savana," Wilson reported.
When her mother arrived at the school to pick her up, another student called out to her: "What are you going to do about them strip-searching Savana?"Upset and angry, April Redding said she marched to the principal's office, then to the superintendent's office nearby. Both denied at first knowing that a student had been strip-searched.
source
