Stripping the Constitution, one search at a time

Administrators who ignore the civil liberties of students threaten the rights of all Americans.

By: Ian McPhail

Posted: 7/2/09

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday against school officials in Arizona for a strip search of a 13-year-old girl. Justices ruled that school officials violated the Fourth Amendment's ban on unreasonable searches when they ordered eighth-grader Savana Redding to remove her clothes and shake her underwear while searching for ibuprofen.

The incident shows a growing problem with public school officials, whose interpretation of laws designed to protect students has gone too far by restricting their civil rights. Children should be entitled to the full range of rights allotted to citizens, even when entering a building as sacred as a public school.

Stafford Middle School in rural eastern Arizona operates under a school district policy banning prescription and over-the-counter drugs. School officials acted to enforce this policy based on a tip from a classmate of Redding, and decided that preventing the equivalent of two Advils from endangering the larger student population justified strip-searching a teenager. Eight justices felt that school officials went too far only when they asked to search the girl's underwear.

"What was missing from the suspected facts that pointed to Savana was any indication of danger to the students from the power of the drugs or their quantity, and any reason to suppose that Savana was carrying pills in her underwear," Justice David Souter wrote in the majority opinion.

Also missing was any "reasonable suspicion" that would allow officials to search Savana's purse or outer clothing, based on a 1985 Supreme Court decision.

Officials acted unreasonably based on an unreliable informant, as telling teachers that a classmate is holding ibuprofen cannot be viewed as anything more than immature tattletaling. The school's employees did not have a single fact that justified their abuse of this child, who did nothing wrong other than offending another teenage girl.

Laws in place restricting the use of legal medicine at school are in place to prevent a lawsuit against the school, not to give the principal the power to turn a public school into a prison. Stopping a teenager from popping pills that are generally harmless medicine does not require the full force of the law. Even had Savana had mild painkillers in her purse, her behavior would have warranted little more than a warning.

Unfortunately, in some cases public school officials have been forced to take on larger roles to protect children in school. Ensuring students' safety should certainly remain a top priority, but educators should not become enforcers of the law.

Instead, officials need to concern themselves with only violating rights when there is a sufficient evidence to suspect a significant crime. Most students attend school with the intention of learning. The average teenager deserves a safe and reasonable enforcement of the laws designed to protect them.

Ian McPhail is a sophomore history major.