Seriously, strip searches over something like this? Just one more step down the conversion of public education into a prison-like atmosphere. Incredible… these strip searches should be stopped at the federal, state, and local level.

If we are really going to use the “[deity] forbid someone gets hurt” rule, gym class needs to be permanently canceled. A kid might slip and fall! A kid might get hit with a ball! It’s rare, but now and then you hear about some kid dying in P.E.!

And “Ibuprofen? WTH!” is not an argument. School rules have been “no meds of any kind unless you have a doctors note and the school nurse administers it” for as long as I can remember. Focus instead on the fact that some meathead administrator decided that it was more efficient to STRIP SEARCH a student on the say so of some kid who was already in trouble than to call the kid’s parents. And some equally meathead school superintendent thought this was worth wasting money to take this all the way to the Supreme Court instead of issuing an apology and clarifying some policies.

We’re largely getting what we deserve with policies like this, BTW. Collectively, the existence of such policies is proof that in general, we think it’s too hard to come up with a comprehensive and sane policy.

At the very least, all parents ought to be allowed to grant permission for the kids to do and have whatever legal things they want when they are at school unless any such item has been banned for a legitimately acknowledged pedagogical reason that has been recognized and approved by some council composed of both school officials and parents.

I’d have no problem with school disallowing games, cell phones, ipods, and so on. But ibuprophen? Any parent willing to sign a consent form allowing their kid to have it and accepting 100% liability if their child shares this medication with someone else to adverse effect should be allowed to do so.

“But justices worried that allowing a strip search of school age children might lead to more intrusive searches, like body cavity searches. ‘There would be no legal basis in saying that was out of bounds,’ Souter said.”

From: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103326158

This makes me feel a bit better. It sounds like he at least gets the gravity of the situation, a bit more than the Washington Post article (above) made it sound like anyways.

When did a public school get to be ahead of the law? Hearsay from a minor hardly constitutes probable cause for any law enforcement agency. Why does a school administrator get to make this call. I’m not familiar with this case previously, but I’m surprised that the family didn’t press criminal charges on the administration. (Does anyone know if they did, or if it is even possible?)

I, for one, cannot believe that the father did not tear that place up. Can you imagine getting that phone call from your daughter? I will never surrender my rights, and especially the rights of my family. And if need be, I will GLADLY stop them physically.

Ibuprofen. May God help us. Best case scenario for the school here? Make kids wait until after school to go to the drug/grocery/convenience store and pick some up? Is that worth a strip search? What is happening here?

I would hope that my daughters would refuse to be strip searched without knowing the probable cause, having their mother there, and a female law enforcement officer present.

Lockers, backpacks, and purses are one thing. Humiliation without having solid proof that you will find something is unacceptable.