The Tripod

"The right of people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizure, shall not be violated …" These simple words are expressly stated in the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and have been recognized to represent the government's boundaries in cases of search and seizure since the day the amendments were ratified in 1791. Yet, this past week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments concerning a gruesomely intrusive and embarrassing strip search of a 13-year-old girl in a public middle school in Safford, Az.

According to the brief submitted by her lawyers, Savana Redding, a then 13-year-old honors student was pulled out of her class in 2003 in front of all her peers and was brought to the principal's office without being told anything. Upon reaching his office, the principal interrogated Redding about pills and other paraphernalia he had found inside Redding's planner, which she had lent to a friend a couple days before. After responding that she did not know anything about the pills or the other paraphernalia inside her planner and telling the principal that she had lent her planner to a friend, the principal asked if he could search her backpack. Having nothing to hide, Redding consented. The principal and an assistant searched the bag and found nothing that would indicate drug use, possession, or any other illegal and/or improper behavior.

The principal then ordered Redding to the nurse's office where she was strip-searched for any evidence of the pills. Upon arriving in the nurse's office, Redding was forced to submit to a terribly invasive and embarrassing search in which the nurses made her take off her clothes and expose her body for inspection, going so far as to expose her breasts and genital area.

This horrific search turned up nothing, and Redding was told to return to class. Following this dreadful series of events, Redding was so embarrassed that she felt it necessary to transfer out of Safford and into another school.

How can it possibly be argued that public school officials, acting as an arm of the government, were justified in executing this search of a 13-year-old? The school was not searching for illicit drugs or even weapons; they were merely searching for ibuprofen, something we all take for our aches and pains. This terrible intrusion into Redding's personal privacy was not only unreasonable as stated in the Fourth Amendment, it was also immoral.

The school had many options available to them before taking it to the extreme of stripping this girl of her dignity by forcing her to remove her clothes.

Why, before this horrendous search, were Redding's parents not notified? Why did the school not check her locker or her desk before this search? Why was a 13 year-old forced to submit to one of the government's most extensive and intrusive searches before any and all other options were exhausted?

There is no justifiable or reasonable answer. There was no warrant issued by a judge, no imminent threat to life, and certainly no discernable reason to have taken this investigation to the extent that the school did.

The school severely and unwarrantably encroached upon this little girl's Fourth Amendment rights from unreasonable searches and seizures.

They acted unjustifiably and did not take into account the adverse effects this search may have had on Redding's life. It is my, and I hope your wish that the Supreme Court will rightly decide this case and hand down an opinion that strikes down the ability of schools to whimsically demand invasive strip searches of students.

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