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Article: Strip-search of student violates Fourth Amendment: education lawyers say the U.S. Supreme Court's Safford ruling confirms their longstanding advice to school officials: don't strip-search kids.
- Article from:
- Illinois Bar Journal
- Article date:
- October 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Illinois State Bar Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Suspecting a 13-year-old girl of secreting ibuprofen on her person, school administrators in Safford, Arizona strip-searched her. A bit extreme? The child's mother thought so, and sued the school district, alleging violations of her daughter's rights under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. A U.S. district court and a panel of the ninth circuit found no constitutional violation and said the search was reasonable.
Sitting en banc, however, the ninth circuit as well as the United States Supreme Court disagreed, holding that the strip search violated the girl's Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure. The case is Sa f ford Unified ...