Court ruling a defense of children's dignity

The U.S. Supreme Court got it right last week when it ruled 8-1 in favor of a student, now 19, then 13 in a Safford middle school.

In 2003, Savanna Redding was subjected to a strip-search at school, based on a tip from another student. School officials looked for ibuprofen in her underwear. School officials ordered her to take off her clothes in an effort to prove she violate school drug policies.

Nothing was found, but something was lost. Her sense of security was violated by the school. 

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

He added, "The content of the suspicion failed to match the degree of intrusion."

Justice Clarence Thomas was the lone dissenting vote.
  The ruling was a message to school administrators. Don't strip-search students unless you have a strong reason to do so. The Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure has a place on school grounds.

I don't understand what it is in some educators' mind-set that leads them to believe its acceptable to strip a student.

In the Safford case, they were overzealous in the defense of a zero-tolerance policy on drugs, making no distinction based on common sense. They saw no difference between ibuprofen and cocaine.

In a Connecticut school system, there is a similar case working its way through the system. When a teacher reported $70 was stolen from her purse, the principal ordered the strip-searching of four boys in search of the money.

Nothing was found. They are suing the district and their case will be heard in court.

I don't recall the strip-searching of a teacher, or a principal, or any adult in a school. What makes it right to pull the clothes off a kid?

It seems to me that an extraordinary level of threat, like a hidden gun, should be suspected before we treat children as inmates and schools as prisons. 

I read a blog in which a parent wrote, "If a school official feels that a strip-search is warranted then that school official better call the police and let them handle it. Quite frankly, if I found out my daughter had been strip-searched in school, I would be doing time for correcting that school officials' perception of how far his authority goes."

In Savanna's case, clearly the adults in her life had the fortitude and the money to fight for her. It makes you wonder how many times such official abuse happens and goes unnoticed.

School authorities have so much they have to balance. They are not in an envious position.

But they will rarely go wrong in placing human dignity, including that of a child, on a higher level than a district policy.

In fact, preserving dignity should be an underlying spirit of a policy.

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Mike Shelton is a Yuma resident and guest columnist for the Yuma Sun. E-mail him at mikshelt@msn.com.