A Teenager's Superior Judgment

It's official, even though we knew this already: Safford (AZ) Middle School assistant principal Kerry Wilson, administrative assistant Helen Romero, and school nurse Peggy Schwallier are not reasonable people. They will now have to live with the hard-to-expunge infamy that comes with strip-searching a 13-year-old female student on the (unfounded) suspicion that she possessed a few ibuprofen pills, a mild and legal painkiller. I wrote about it here.

The search would have been a sexual assault under almost any other imaginable circumstances; as Popehat noted at the time, "If this had happened anywhere but school, they'd be all be in jail."

In a rare 8-1 Supreme Court decision, the school authorities have finally been slapped upside the head for violating Savana Redding's rights. Justice John Paul Stevens opined

It does not require a constitutional scholar to conclude that a nude search of a 13-year-old child is an invasion of constitutional rights of some magnitude.

It does not, and it clearly is. In fact, a 13-year-old middle schooler knew it was wrong. We owe Savana Redding a debt of gratitude for seeing this through till the end. With students like her, the future of liberty appears to be in good hands. There's a fine video interview with Savana here. I like the slight smile of her mom. I'd be proud of her too. In fact, I am.

Comments

[Phelps]

You know, I would be fine with this combination of non-negotiable decisions:

1) It is not unconstitutional for school administrators to strip-search students

and

2) "(S)He strip searched my child" is an affirmative defense to battery.

[hermesten]

"If this had happened anywhere but school, they'd be all be in jail."

You may not fully realize the truth of this statement. I am close to someone who has recently consulted an attorney over the conduct of a school administrator (nothing to do with strip searches). He was told flat out that the laws that apply to the rest of us don't apply to school officials, who actually have exemptions under state law for conduct that the rest of us peasants would be held accountable for.