School strip-search case reaches Supreme Court this week

By David G. Savage

Chicago Tribune

(MCT)

SAFFORD, Ariz. _ When Savana Redding, now 19, talks of what happened to her in 8th grade, it is clear the painful memories linger.

She speaks of being embarrassed and of fearing and distrusting a nurse, and of staying away from school for two months. And she recalls whispers and stares from others in the small eastern Arizona mining town of Safford after she was strip-searched in the nurse's office because a vice principal suspected she might be hiding an extra-strength ibuprofen in her underwear.

This week, the Supreme Court will hear her case. Its decision, the first to address the issue of strip-searches in schools, will set the legal limits, if any, on the authority of school officials to search for drugs or weapons on campus. And while Savana's story provokes outrage from many who hear it, the school district warns that its ability to keep all drugs out of its schools must be preserved.

Matthew Wright, the school district's lawyer, said the vice principal was concerned because one student had gotten seriously ill from taking unidentified pills.

"That was the driving force for him. If nothing had been done, and this happened to another kid, parents would have been outraged," Wright said. "If there are drugs and weapons at school, how much do we want to tie the hands of the administrators?"

Only once has the high court ruled on a school-search case, and it sounds quaint now. It arose in 1980 when a New Jersey girl was caught smoking in the bathroom, and the principal searched her purse for cigarettes.

The justices upheld this search because the principal had a specific reason for looking in her purse. However, they did not say how far officials can go _ and how much of a student's privacy can be sacrificed _ to maintain safety at school. That's the issue in Safford Unified School District v. Redding.

Savana was an honors student, shy and "nerdy" when the 8th grade began in the fall of 2003, she said.

She first learned she was in trouble when Kerry Wilson, the vice principal, came into a math class one morning and told her to come with him to the office.

He was in search of white pills. "District policy J-3050 strictly prohibits the non-medical use or possession of any drug on campus," he said later in a sworn statement.

Wilson knew a boy had gotten sick from pills he obtained at school. And that morning, another 8th-grader, Marissa Glines, was found with what turned out to be several 400 mg ibuprofen pills tucked into a folded school planner. A few days before, Savana had lent Marissa the folder. The vice principal also found a small knife, a cigarette and a lighter in the folder. When asked where she got the pills, Marissa named Savana Redding.

These "could only be obtained with a prescription," Wilson reported. Marketed over the counter as Advil and Motrin with recommended doses of 200 to 400 mg, they are commonly used for headaches or to relieve pain from menstrual cramps.

Savana, however, said she knew nothing of the pills in Marissa's folder.

"He asked if he could search my backpack. I said, 'Sure,' " she recalled. When nothing was found, Wilson sent Savana to the nurse's office, where the nurse and an office assistant were told to "search her clothes" for the missing pills.

(EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

Savana said she kept her head down, embarrassed and afraid she would cry. After removing her pink T-shirt and black stretch pants, she stood in her bra and panties. She was told to pull her underwear to the side and to shake to see if any pills could be dislodged.

(END OPTIONAL TRIM)

It was "the most humiliating experience" of her life, she said.

"We did not find any pills during our search of Savana," Wilson reported.

Upset and angry, Savana's mother, April Redding, complained to the principal's office, then to the superintendent's office nearby. Both denied at first knowing that a student had been strip-searched.

"It was wrong. I didn't think anything like that could happen to my daughter at school," she said. "Why didn't they call me? I couldn't get them to explain it."

Contacted at the school last week, Wilson declined to discuss the case, as did other school officials.

When no one apologized, April Redding sued the school district. Her lawyers say the strip-search goes far beyond the bounds of reasonableness, especially when there was no imminent danger.

April Redding says she had a simple goal. "I wanted a judge to say what they did was wrong," she said.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

After the strip-search, Savana refused to return to the middle school. She did not want to be in the presence of the nurse or the office assistant who humiliated her. She went to an alternative high school in Safford, but dropped out before graduating. She is taking psychology classes at nearby East Arizona College.

___

© 2009, Chicago Tribune.

Visit the Chicago Tribune on the Internet at http://www.chicagotribune.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.