Legal Commentary

Strip Searches At Charter School

By TChris

Allegations of grade tampering and falsification of attendance records at a Chicago charter school are troubling, but this is shocking:

Three high school girls, taken into a washroom one at a time by an off-duty Chicago police officer, told to drop their pants, squat and cough -- all in the hunt for a cigarette lighter that was never found. ... Chicago Public School officials say ... the off-duty Chicago police officer who was acting as a school security guard [has] been "disciplined'' and left the school as a result. ...

[A] federal lawsuit is expected to be filed Thursday against the off-duty female police officer and [the school] on behalf of two of [the] three girls .... The attorneys contend the off-duty officer searched under the girls' shirts for a lighter allegedly used by a boy to set a fire in the boy's washroom.

Conducting a strip search for a lighter is an outrageous invasion of privacy. Did the officer intend to humiliate the girls? The third girl avoided the strip search by having the guts to refuse.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on January 08, 2009 (boomark / email).