Strip Search of Ariz. Teenager Illegal, Court Says

FILE - This April 21, 2009, file photo shows Savana Redding standing outside the Supreme Court in...

FILE - This April 21, 2009, file photo shows Savana Redding standing outside the Supreme Court in Washington, after the court heard the case of Redding who was strip searched when she was 13 years old by school officials looking for prescription-strength ibuprofen pills . The court ruled Thursday, June 25, 2009, that the school's strip search was illegal. In an 8-1 ruling, the justices said school officials violated the law with their search of Redding in the rural eastern Arizona town of Safford. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, file)

(AP)

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that school officials violated an Arizona teenager's rights by strip-searching her for prescription-strength ibuprofen, declaring that U.S. educators cannot force children to remove their clothing unless student safety is at risk.

In an 8-1 ruling, the justices said that Safford Middle School officials violated the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches with their treatment of Savana Redding. The court ruled that the officials could not be held financially liable but left it to lower courts to decide if the school district could.

While children's advocates and civil liberties groups cheered the decision, others suggested the high court may have created further problems for school systems by failing to make clear exactly when school administrators can strip search students and when they can't.

"The court seems to think it made things clearer, but I don't think they did," said Dan Capra, a Fordham University law professor. "Officials now know they can't do exactly what was done in Safford. But what if there is any change of material fact in the circumstances?"

Redding was 13 when the educators in rural eastern Arizona conducted the search in 2003. They were looking for pills — the equivalent of two Advils. The district bans prescription and over-the-counter drugs without advance permission, and the school was acting on a tip from another student.

The search of Redding's backpack and outer clothes was permissible, the court said. But the justices said that officials went too far when they asked to search her underwear.

A 1985 Supreme Court decision that dealt with searching a student's purse had found that school officials need only reasonable suspicions, not probable cause. But that ruling also warned against a search that was "excessively intrusive."

"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 Thursday's majority opinion.