Strip Searches At Charter School

By TChris, Section Civil Liberties
Posted on Thu Jan 08, 2009 at 09:17:34 PM EST
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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.

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Strip Searches At Charter School | 11 comments (11 topical)

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What the h*ll is going on (none / 0) (#1)
by talesoftwokitties on Thu Jan 08, 2009 at 11:07:28 PM EST

in CHICAGO???

Every day some crazy news comes out of that burg.

Please don't be so quick (none / 0) (#2)
by Spamlet on Thu Jan 08, 2009 at 11:45:43 PM EST

to imply that two of the girls were searched because, unlike the third, they didn't have "the guts to refuse."

This is an extremely stressful and disorienting situation, especially for such young women. It immediately induces some degree of shock. It's good that one of the girls had the presence of mind to avoid being violated, but the other two are not responsible for the actions of the adult who abused her power over them in that situation.

I'm glad somebody is literally making a federal case of it.

I don't believe (none / 0) (#5)
by TChris on Fri Jan 09, 2009 at 07:28:29 AM EST

that implication is present in the post.


: Not intentionally, I'm sure (none / 0) (#7)
by Spamlet on Fri Jan 09, 2009 at 09:40:52 AM EST

it isn't just chicago, (none / 0) (#3)
by cpinva on Thu Jan 08, 2009 at 11:50:19 PM EST

it's all over the country. i am curious, if all the girls had to do was refuse to be strip- searched, with no apparent (or at least reported) threatened repercussions, why didn't both of them refuse? of course, we're talking about 15 year-olds too.

what's even more interesting is that there seems little empirical data to support the contention that charter schools perform any better than regular public schools, all things being equal.

the whole premise of the charter schools was that they could do a better job teaching than the regular public schools. absent that, and their reason for existence disappears.

How many boys (none / 0) (#4)
by Jen M on Fri Jan 09, 2009 at 06:34:34 AM EST

were stripped searched the same way?

: Had a cop grab my junk once... (none / 0) (#9)
by kdog on Fri Jan 09, 2009 at 10:30:56 AM EST

hand inside my boxers on the side of the road looking for reefer, sure felt like a sexual assault but I didn't see the point in filing a complaint...potheads word against an upstanding officer of the law and all.
No doubt though, this is an issue mainly for women and young girls. Parents need to teach their daughters that they don't have to strip for the President of the USA, much less some two-bit thug with a badge. Your body is sovereign.
It's an amazing phenomenon how people will submit in the face of authority despite every instinct to the contrary.

: How many men were involved in this strip search? (none / 0) (#10)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Fri Jan 09, 2009 at 12:46:03 PM EST

How many women were shot in the back while lying on their stomachs with their hands behind their backs in the BART station?
How many guys try to get out of traffic tickets by flirting, or more, with the cop?
How prevalent is young girl abuse at the hands of Catholic priests compared to young boys?
Why do you want to make this topic a competition?

Although this particular instance was in a (none / 0) (#6)
by Inspector Gadget on Fri Jan 09, 2009 at 08:15:47 AM EST

Charter school, it is a stretch to claim it belongs in the list of concerns over the school structure.

These illegal strip searches have more often happened in public schools and should probably be attached to the law enforcement profession rather than the schools. Not intending to let the schools off the hook, by any means, but grade tampering and falsification of attendance records are nothing compared to the list of problems I could name in our school system: public, private, and charter.

Thank the War on (Some) Drugs for this (none / 0) (#8)
by SeeEmDee on Fri Jan 09, 2009 at 09:54:15 AM EST

You wouldn't have this happening but for the damnable War on (Some) Drugs. It's gotten people conditioned to jettison their rights on command, like Pavlov's dogs that drooled when he blew a whistle. "Land of the free..."; yeah, right...

parents' choice (none / 0) (#11)
by diogenes on Fri Jan 09, 2009 at 10:37:54 PM EST

Hey, the girls' parents are welcome to transfer them back to the nice, safe Chicago public school district.