Tomas Morrissey - Sun Apr 26 14:41:35 2009

While the NPR article "Supreme Court to Hear School Strip-Search Case, written by Nina Totenberg, has little to do with the curriculum and instruction of mathematics, it is still an interesting article nevertheless.   The questions that comes to mind in regards to the article is the legality of performing a search on a student.  Specifically, the case involves a student who had no previous discipline issues with the school.  "The school says the fact that Redding was an honors student who had never been in trouble before is not evidence of good conduct, but only evidence that she had never been caught" (from the article).  This mind set that the school seems to have, that if you have not had trouble its not because you keep a clean nose, but that you crafty enough to evade capture, is perhaps as alarming as the spontaneous strip search.

School administrators need to strive to keep an educational environment free of drugs and violence, but the situation described in the article seems to be an abuse of power.  Strip searching a minor, even if there is some probable cause (the school says that another student claimed that the student in question was holding prescription strength ibuprofen, which hardly seems to warrant a search considering that is the equivalent of two Advils), is a major oversight on the part of the administration.  Even if their actions are somehow ruled to be legal, it seems that a the strip search level their should be parental contact and police involvement.   Beyond prescribing to the law, schools also need to be worried about liability, and conducting such a search opens the school up to a bevy of liability issues.  Simply put, the administration at this school should have considered all the ramifications of their actions.