I really thought we'd put an end to disciplining students with violence by now, but I guess I had my head in the sand because it appears the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals still believes it is ok to strip search a student. In an opinion handed down September 21, the court let stand the rejection of a woman's suit against a school that strip searched her daughter:
"Based on the information available to them, defendants (Safford School District, Wilson, Schwallier and Romero) had 'reasonable grounds' for suspecting that the search of (the girl's) person would turn up evidence that (the girl) had violated or was violating either the law or the rules of the school."
Read on.
The girl's mother had brought a federal lawsuit against the Safford, Arizona Schools, the teacher and staff, after the girl was made to strip her clothes and underwear because the school staff believed she was in the possession of ibuprofen, which is available over the counter under many trade names, including Advil. Further, the suit maintained, the mother was not notified of the impending strip search nor asked for permission.
The student was 13 years old at the time.
Now, I am a boomer, and I remember the days of strict dress codes and strict enforcement of behavior standards, before we boomers blew all that away. But for the life of me, I don't remember anyone ever being strip searched. Especially a 13 year old. An adolescent girl. Suspected of having --- Advil?
As I said last night in a comment, I think I have outrage fatigue, because I saw this tonight and just wanted to weep for a girl whose innocence has been chipped away by the very people she should be able to trust. I guess the ninth circuit just wants to live in a gulag of a country where those who pretend to be in authority can assault, beat, rape and murder anyone they feel like.
Ok. Maybe the beat and murder are going a little far, but this girl has been assaulted by adults. Any time any young one is forced to strip by strangers (the teachers aren't her parents, after all), it is a form of rape. Is this a part of the family values people voted for? To have children assaulted and molested by anyone bearing a title?
No, maybe I am not so exhausted of outrage as I thought, because I do feel outrage. I feel outrage that a young girl will forever bear the scars of hideous assault under cover of enforcing school rules. And, while remembering ibuprofen is legal, and often used by young women to control pain from cramping, I am outraged at teachers and administrators too obtuse to differentiate between heroin and a tablet used for headaches.
Zero Tolerance
This is another fine example of the effects of all those famous 'Zero Tolerance' campaigns foisted on us over the last 15 years: 'Zero Tolerance' means lazy, stupid, boorish officials don't have to think or make distinctions. Zero Tolerance means there is no room for error, for weakness, for youthful indiscretion, or for forgiveness.
Zero Tolerance establishes all wrong-doing on the same level. The pusher is no worse than the user, and the Advil taker chasing a headache or cramps is no different from someone shooting up by the dumpster or snorting in the restroom.
In the Zero Tolerance world, anyone who is less than perfect garners the same punishment as every other less-than-perfect being, whether they have striven for perfection or not.
Hell, in the Zero Tolerance world there are only two grades available to students: perfect and loser.
Of course Zero Tolerance is popular among, and pushed on us by, people who see no failure, weakness or shortcomings in themselves. Such imposition of the rules of perfection can only be imposed by those who are perfect, since passing a judgment like this can only be accomplished by those who are free of judgment themselves.
And what these people did was an act of violence. I don't care how much window dressing repugnant judges put on it, those teachers raped that little girl, and have scarred her for life. They do not deserve to be allowed around children anymore, let alone permitted to go on teaching. The fact that courts upheld them reveals just how deeply we have sunk into barbarism in the country, and goes a long way, in my mind, toward explaining what is wrong in our schools, in our country, in our society.
I say publish the names and addresses of the teachers, the name of the school, and flood it with letters and packages of Advil. Not that I'm encourageing harassment or civil disobedience, understand. It's just a thought.