Justices hear arguments over school strip search
WASHINGTON -- A lawyer for a 13-year-old girl strip-searched by school officials looking for prescription-strength ibuprofen pills told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that the administrators needed better information than what they had before doing such a humiliating search.
Savana Redding was 13 when Safford Middle School officials ordered her to remove her clothes and shake out her underwear looking for pills.
Adam Wolf, lawyer for the now-19-year-old Redding, told the justices Tuesday that a strip search for any reason would be unconstitutionally unreasonable unless school officials were told specifically that something was in her underwear.
That seemed to worry several justices. They also seemed concerned that allowing strip searches of school-age children could lead to more intrusive actions, such as body cavity searches.
The school lawyer argued that the courts should not limit school officials' ability to search out dangerous items on school grounds.
Justices are expected to rule in the case by late June.
Redding told USA TODAY she was scared and confused when an assistant principal searching for drugs ordered her out of math class, searched her backpack and then instructed an administrative aide and school nurse to conduct a strip search.
"I went into the nurse's office and kept following what they asked me to do," Redding recalls of the incident six years ago that she says still leaves her shaken and humiliated. "I thought, 'What could I be in trouble for?' "
That morning, another student had been caught with prescription-strength ibuprofen and had told the assistant principal, Kerry Wilson, that she'd gotten the pills from Redding. The nurse and administrative assistant, both women, were alone with Redding in the nurse's office when they asked the girl to take off her shoes and socks, then her shirt and pants. The two women then asked Redding to pull open her bra and panties so they could see whether she was hiding any pills. None was found.
Drug searches, along with drug tests for students in athletics and other extracurricular activities, have become common in schools across the nation. But the Oct. 8, 2003 search of Redding could transform the landscape of drug searches in public schools.
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