Supreme Court Hears Case on Strip Search by School Officials of 13 Year Old
The case resulted when a parent of an honor role student in a public school was stripped searched by school officials. The school defended its actions as being necessary to protect students, while the student argued that the actions taken by the school were disproportionate to the threat they said that she posed. A federal appellate court held that the search of the student was unreasonable and that a school official could be liable for violating the girl's Fourth Amendment rights. The Supreme Court heard arguments today and will issue a ruling on the constitutionality of the strip search. Previous cases related to searches of students in school settings involved lockers and backpacks.
Justices Hear Arguments Over School Strip Search, New York Times (Associate Press), April 21, 2009
