Constitutional Law

VICTORY! Supreme Court Finds Strip-Search of 13-Year Old Girl Unconstitutional

By Suzanne Ito, ACLU

The Supreme Court today ruled that school officials violated the constitutional rights of a 13-year-old Arizona girl when they strip searched her based on a classmate’s uncorroborated accusation that she previously possessed ibuprofen. The ACLU’s Drug Law Reform Project represented April Redding, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, whose daughter, Savana Redding, was strip searched by Safford Middle School officials six years ago.

Adam Wolf, an attorney with the ACLU who argued the case before the Court, said today:

We are pleased that the Supreme Court recognized that school officials had no reason to strip search Savana Redding and that the decision to do so was unconstitutional. Today’s ruling affirms that schools are not constitutional dead zones. While we are disappointed with the Court’s conclusion that the law was not clear before today and therefore school officials were not found liable, at least other students will not have to go through what Savana experienced.

We’ll have more soon. In the meantime, please send a message thanking Savana and April for standing up for all students’ rights.

Full post as published by Blog of Rights on June 25, 2009 (boomark / email).