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Supreme Court to Hear Case of 13 Year Old Strip-searched for Ibuprofin

2K views 53 replies 35 participants last post by  Storm Bride 
#1 ·
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/16/...l?iref=topnews

Quote:
-A 13-year-old Arizona girl who was strip-searched by school officials looking for ibuprofen pain reliever will have her case heard at the Supreme Court.
The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether school officials were right to strip-search a student over ibuprofen.

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether school officials were right to strip-search a student over ibuprofen.

Arguments won't happen until April. I surely hope school officials do not have this right.
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#4 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by MusicianDad View Post
:puke

And since when is Ibuprofen a controlled substance?
I don't know of a single school that allows students to have medications of any sort on them. You have to go to the nurse's office and get an ibuprofen, and at the high school I went to, even if you were 18 your parent or legal guardian had to sign an approval form in advance.


This absolutely disgusts me. I would be IRATE if this happened to my child. I hope they don't find that school's have the right to strip search students. It's horrible.
 
#6 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by grniys View Post
I don't know of a single school that allows students to have medications of any sort on them. You have to go to the nurse's office and get an ibuprofen, and at the high school I went to, even if you were 18 your parent or legal guardian had to sign an approval form in advance.


This absolutely disgusts me. I would be IRATE if this happened to my child. I hope they don't find that school's have the right to strip search students. It's horrible.
Weird. Here you can have Ibuprofen or Tylenol for headaches.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lotusdebi View Post
The fact that the Supreme Court is hearing this worries me. They could just let the federal appeals court rulling that it was illegal stand. I am very concerned that the Supreme Court will rule in favor of the schools.
I really hope they don't rule in favour of the school. I can just imagine what it would lead to. I know I'm not the only one who has had a creepy principal.
 
#7 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by grniys View Post
I don't know of a single school that allows students to have medications of any sort on them. You have to go to the nurse's office and get an ibuprofen, and at the high school I went to, even if you were 18 your parent or legal guardian had to sign an approval form in advance.

.
Ditto, although I did have a couple of teachers that kept it "hidden" in their desk and would just to happen to open that drawer when you had a headache.

But strip searched??? Seriously? They do that to convicts in prison, where do they get off doing to a kid?
 
#9 ·
From the article: "In its appeal to the high court, the school district said requiring a legal standard of "probable cause" to conduct student searches would cast a "roadblock to the kind of swift and effective response that is too often needed to protect the very safety of students, particularly from the threats posed by drugs and weapons.""

This concerns and befuddles me. WHY would you want the right to randomly strip search anyone without a "probable cause"?? Why SHOULD you have that right?? Hey, I know, let's randomly search every 15th student that gets a drink from the water fountain in the west hall! Why? Because we can! Bwahahaha! Seriously, this just amazes me and not in a good way! Of course they should have to have a reason to search a student. And if they're strip searching a student the parent had darn well better be given the opportunity to be on hand for it as well! (Actually I'm not sure I think that should even be allowed, but there may be situations I haven't really explored on that one.)

K.
 
#10 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by kolleen9 View Post
Reason #24 why I hate schools.

Learning institutions should be community centers for people of all ages to learn what they want, when they want. Not prisons or day cares with fascist rules, oppression and indoctrination.

/me steps down from soapbox :/

/kolleen
: Happily marching onward to a police state.
 
#15 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by phathui5 View Post
No way should school officials be able to make any student take their clothes off. That's reprehensible.
:
Disgusting.

If I had encountered that in high school I would have ran out of the school. They could have called the cops to come stop me but then at that point maybe the would have called my parents and I know they would have said NO. Did they call the students parents first? I mean how can they think that was okay?? There wasn't much info in the article but I wondered if the girl fought it or if the parents were notified.

Can police even strip search a teen without parental consent??

UGHH! I am just shocked and disgusted. WTF.
 
#16 ·
Ugh. On one hand, it was PRESCRIPTION ibuprofen, and I can see the need to control what goes on with prescription drugs in the school, but I don't think ANY child should be strip-searched without a parent's consent and presence. It boggles my mind that anyone who is not the parent or law enforcement official would think it would be ok to strip-search a minor for anything. (And I don't think law enforcement should be strip-searching minors without the presence of a parent, either.)

ETA: Just to clarify, I don't think strip-searches should be conducted for anything short of marijuana or hard drugs or weapons or explosives. Prescription ibuprofen is ridiculous.
 
#17 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by grniys View Post
I don't know of a single school that allows students to have medications of any sort on them. You have to go to the nurse's office and get an ibuprofen, and at the high school I went to, even if you were 18 your parent or legal guardian had to sign an approval form in advance.


This absolutely disgusts me. I would be IRATE if this happened to my child. I hope they don't find that school's have the right to strip search students. It's horrible.
here you have to have a prescription or doctors note, period and even if its an inhaler you have to have it in the nurses office and go to her for it, otherwise it falls under the 0 tolerance thing...yep, even if youre 18 or over. my kids dad had to do it, and he was 19 when we quit. he signed himself out of school, signing the "parent" part on the form but had to have a parent and prescription to have tylenol a few weeks before.

and i REALLY hope they decide no, i mean if they did think it was okay hopefully they wouldnt have taken the case! if theyre going to side with the school, im going to be seriously sick.
 
#18 ·
I just the worst shutters from this story. O.M.G. For Advil! Are you kidding me? I mean yes, I remember that we had strict rules about any kind of drug in schools. And there was a big deal about whether students could carry their own inhalers with them because they were prescription and they should be kept with a nurse. But then what if they needed the inhaler in seconds? I think all those rules in general are idiotic. When parents can trust they children completely to take the drugs they need at the right time when they are out of school - why would it be any different in school?

Also, I was on a camp out once with a high school group. I was having the worst cramps ever and one of my friends (male actually!) was concerned about me and handed me one of his headache pills (800 mg ibuprofen). I wasn't going to take it, but he showed me that it was 4 advils. It was the sweetest relief I had ever felt for my cramps. Blissful. Since then, that is what I always take. I can't imagine if I had turned him in or he had been strip searched. He was one of the kindest kids in the school! Not only that but there were a few teachers who we knew well who would give up tylenol or advil if we needed it. I just can't imagine this whole story. It isn't heron!!! ugh.
 
#19 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by kolleen9 View Post
Learning institutions should be community centers for people of all ages to learn what they want, when they want. Not prisons or day cares with fascist rules, oppression and indoctrination.

That sounds lovely, and you can bet the teachers would be in favour!

What would happen to all the human beings aged 4 to 18 who don't want to learn anything?
 
#20 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Murihiku View Post
What would happen to all the human beings aged 4 to 18 who don't want to learn anything?
Thing is... if they don't want to learn, I don't think they can be forced to in school either.

I don't remember tylenol, motrin, etc. being outlawed when I was in school..but then again, it's been 20+ years. I remember always having a bottle in my locker for cramps and stuff. I think they cared about Rx drugs... illegal drugs... but not OTC drugs.
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#21 ·
It was prescription strength, not just OTC advil. Thier policy was no drugs including prescription without prior permission. however they crossed the line & the strip search was ridiculous. Did this girl even actually have a rx for it, or was the other child lying the entire time & this was all for nothing?
 
#22 ·
When I was subbing, we had zero tolerance but no school in the county did ANYthing like a strip search. Random locker/ backpack searches and "please turn out your pockets or you'll get detention" was as personal as it would ever, EVER get. And it was a county where there were a lot of illegal drugs around. I mean a LOT. But we respected the students' bodily integrity, for heaven's sake.
 
#23 ·
This whole business makes me crazy. CRAZY. I remember reading about it before when it was in the (california? I think) courts and I was FURIOUS.
 
#24 ·
OMG! If someone did that to my daughter you wouldn't find the body. Seriously. I consider that a sexual assault. The school is fighting for the right to sexually assault students at will. Thank God my kids go to a private parent-run Christian school. This would NOT fly there. My 8 year old son is on 2 prescription medications he has to take 3 times a day and one of those dosage times is at 2:00pm when he is obviously in school. They asked me if I wanted the teacher to hold onto them or if he wanted to keep them in his backpack. I told them he couldn't open the pill bottles yet so I preferred the teacher hold them. I mean, we had to fill out a medication form for the office but nothing major. I just cannot imagine someone doing this to one of my daughters.
 
#25 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Fujiko View Post
Ugh. On one hand, it was PRESCRIPTION ibuprofen, and I can see the need to control what goes on with prescription drugs in the school, but I don't think ANY child should be strip-searched without a parent's consent and presence. It boggles my mind that anyone who is not the parent or law enforcement official would think it would be ok to strip-search a minor for anything. (And I don't think law enforcement should be strip-searching minors without the presence of a parent, either.)

ETA: Just to clarify, I don't think strip-searches should be conducted for anything short of marijuana or hard drugs or weapons or explosives. Prescription ibuprofen is ridiculous.
Only prescription in the US, and maybe a couple of other countries. You can get 400mg tablets at the local conveniece store here. Took one last night for a headache...
 
#26 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by onelilguysmommy View Post
here you have to have a prescription or doctors note, period and unless its an inhaler you have to have it in the nurses office and go to her for it, otherwise it falls under the 0 tolerance thing...yep, even if youre 18 or over. my kids dad had to do it, and he was 19 when we quit. he signed himself out of school, signing the "parent" part on the form but had to have a parent and prescription to have tylenol a few weeks before.

and i REALLY hope they decide no, i mean if they did think it was okay hopefully they wouldnt have taken the case! if theyre going to side with the school, im going to be seriously sick.
Cause we all know the safest place for an asthmatic to keep their inhaler is with the nurse. That particular rule is even more absurd.
 
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