Yesterday the Supreme Court announced their decision on the legality of a deplorable situation where thirteen-year-old honors student was strip searched by a school secretary and a school nurse.
By an 8-1 they ruled that the school violated the Constitutional defense against unreasonable searches.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
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Recognizing the need to maintain control on campus, Justice Souter wrote that school officials need only hold a "reasonable suspicion" of wrongdoing before searching students, a lower threshold than "probable cause," which applies in ordinary circumstances. Mr. Wilson's suspicion was reasonable, the court found, and that was grounds enough to search Ms. Redding's backpack and outer garments.
But the strip-search was another matter, Justice Souter wrote, citing social-science research showing that teenagers' "adolescent vulnerability intensifies the patent intrusiveness of the exposure."
Justice Souter observed that the evidence against Ms. Redding was weak, there was no specific reason to believe she had contraband stashed in her underwear, and the medication involved was relatively harmless—400 mg ibuprofen pills, equivalent to two Advil tablets. In combination, "these deficiencies fatal to finding the search reasonable."
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I was surprised that Clarence Thomas was the one dissenting vote:
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Justice Clarence Thomas, in a vehement dissent, said courts should stop interfering with school officials and leave them free, under a centuries-old standard, to act with the same authority as a parent to search or discipline students.
Such a constitutional interpretation is needed "to keep the judiciary from essentially seizing control of public schools," Thomas said. He said parents who object to a school's treatment of their children can ask their school board or legislature to change the rules, "send their children to private schools or home-school them, or they can simply move."
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I was disappointed that the surpreme court protected the school officials who initiated the searched.
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Technorati tags: government schools, children, public school, public education, parenting, education
3 comments:
Thank you for the update. I'm surprised at Judge Thomas's statement.
I was disappointed that the supreme court protected the school officials who initiated the searched.
While they protected the individuals, who were acting in 'good faith' under the school policy, I believe they left the school system open for a civil suit.
Justice Thomas' vote surprised me as well.
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