Why don't students have rights???>>>>Student Strip Search Heads To High Court!?!

[Mike]

Hi All.... hope this finds you well.

Overtime i have posted my thoughts on the Obedience Model used in the majority of schools.... i have posted statistics on corporal punishment in our schools and my thoughts on establishing environments of respect in our schools.

This latest news fits under the same category........

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear the case of a young Arizona honor student who was strip-searched in the eighth grade by school officials looking for ibuprofen pills.

Savana Redding and her mother have been fighting the Safford Unified School District in Safford, Ariz., since 2003.

That's when Savana - then a 13-year-old honor student - was called to the principal's office.

"Once they got me into my underwear I thought they would let me put my clothes back on," she told CBS News correspondent Hattie Kauffman. "But then they told me to pull out my bra and shake it, and my underwear as well."

When another student was found with ibuprofen pills, she blamed Savana. After a search of her backpack came up empty, the school nurse and a female secretary performed a strip search.

The search didn't turn up any drugs. The ACLU sued the district and will argue Savannah's case before the Supreme Court.

"Child health experts are backing Savana in this case," said ACLU attorney Adam Wolf. "They agree that a strip search of a child inflicts trauma similar in kind and degree to sexual abuse."

School administrators said they have to be able to protect the entire student body from individuals who may bring drugs or guns to school.

"The search was done following all the necessary constitutional standards, and really with care that the student's dignity was respected," said Francisco Negron of the National School Boards Association.

The school district appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court, saying that the Ninth Circuit's ruling "upsets the longstanding tradition of deferring to the judgment and expertise of school officials in highly discretionary matters. The result is an opinion wholly uninformed about a disturbing new trend - teens’ abuse of prescription and over-the-counter drugs."

The Supreme Court granted certiorari in the case and will hear arguments on Tuesday.


Almost hard to believe that students continue to have very few rights in schools.

Wondering how you go about teaching about living in a democratic republic with out having practice in a place that children spend a great deal of time!

What are students rights like where you work?

be well... mike

[Ian Carmichael]

But, Mike - surely students don't vote? So why should they need rights?

Seriously though, such draconian and invasive treatments are untenable. I doubt that such actions are permissible in Australia - if adequate evidence is supplied, the question becomes a police matter, not a matter for school adminstration interference.

What is also astounding in many of these cases is the flimsy 'evidence' that leads to such dramatic events - and events which contradict the school purposes of caring for students as well as educating. (Evidence often so flimsy - often hearsay which may well be blame-shifting - that police wouldn't dare to act on it.)

[Linda]

This pushed big buttons with me as well. I think that students' rights are being picked at (just as the rest of our rights were in the past 8 years or so) until the term itself becomes almost meaningless. I heard the school here being quoted about how it was OK to violate a few rights for the greater good. Doesn't that sound familiar.

To me this seems to be a no-brainer. Of course no child should be strip searched at school--and with such meager "evidence". If that same nurse took the girl aside for medical treatment she would be constantly looking over shoulder to make sure that there was no hue and cry of "improper touching" or the like.

Thanks for bringing this up and encouraging folks to think about it.

[Ellen Pham]

Ian, I was shocked that such actions were permissible in US schools- disgusted and shocked by the news story. The POLICE can't even INTERVIEW an underage child without a parent present. I would have had that principal physically up against the wall- it was a feeling of outrage. And it didn't go unnoticed that the girl's mother was a nurse's aide... the lower level of the working class in the US. I can't imagine this happening in wealthier public schools- too many parents are lawyers, which makes the administration more careful and circumspect in their actions.

Completely disgusting, and anyone who doesn't understand the sexual violation of that strip search on a 13 yr old girl's psyche isn't safe to be around children.

I don't think the Supreme Court will come down on the side of the schools with this one... there is already precedent against it. Also, I think there would be a public outcry. No mother or father sends their child to school with the understanding that they can be strip searched without the parent's knowledge and consent.

[Ellen Pham]

Well, what do I know, Ian, it looks like the court is leaning towards legalizing strip searches of underage children by school officials. The article just gets more distressing, the school system arguing that while of course they wouldn't do it (why not?), body cavity searches are also within legal bounds.

I see this as a violation of parental rights. How dare someone violate my child in this way without my knowledge, never mind consent? There would be no danger to waiting until the parent could be contacted and be present, along with her adult sensibilities, life experience, and lawyer. If a situation has gotten to the point of a strip search, it should be done as a police matter, under those rules of evidence. It is too invasive and the consequences to some children too long lasting to be taken up by non-professionals in this matter. The girl didn't go back to school for months, and ended up changing schools!

My first, profound reaction to hearing about this story (in the car, on public radio) was to feel thankful I no longer had to watch over my children in this way- they are adults. My children went to a sweet, easy-going school for grades K-8; still, I instilled in them that if an adult in authority ever told them to do something that made them uncomfortable in any way, to say, loudly and repeatedly, CALL MY MOTHER. I have the parental right, in any situation that involves my child's body or has serious consequences to my child's future, to stand between them and the authority figure they are facing. Medical personnel understand this. The legal system acknowledges this. If the schools are going to act like police, they must play under the same rules and citizenship protections. I can't imagine how the Supreme Court could come down on the wrong side of this one.

By the way, my middle child did use this line, in perhaps a more flip way than I had intended, in a couple interactions with teachers. I never got the call. The teacher backed off, and Chucky went on his merry way. All children deserve that sense of security in their persons, to know that they are not alone at the mercy of any authority figure that comes along. When society interferes with the (ok, I won't help myself here) God-given right of that parent to intervene for and protect his/her child, well, we might as well be communists! That's what I was taught about democracy in the third grade. The state doesn't own you, your parents do! :D Rather, you belong to your parents, as in, Take Good Care of Yourself, You Belong to Me : )

Seriously, a child has the right to not be abused by his parents. This is an appropriate use of intervention into the family by the state. Any other intervention I can think of weakens the family structure. Is that what we want? And what do we propose to replace that structure? So why wasn't the school required to contact her mother before performing the strip search?

[Mike]

Hi all..... hope this finds everyone well!

Amazing really.... that we seem to think kids may learn the practices of democracy simply by hearing about them..... we can do much better than that!!!

Classroom teachers can begin to do this NOW.....

with how they set up the structures in their rooms..... and school leader's can begin to shift this in their buildings with out state concerns.

A Sample of Student Rights and Responsibilities----

feel free to add what ever fits your school communities uniques needs......
Rights and Responsibilities


MY RIGHTS

I have the right to be treated with dignity and respect at all times. This means no one will laugh at me, tease me or hurt my feelings.

I have the right to be safe in this school. This means that no one will…
hit me
kick me
push me
threaten me
hurt me.

I have a right to expect my property to be safe in this school.

I have a right to hear and be heard in this school. This means that no one will…

yell
scream
shout
or otherwise disturb me.

I have a right to learn and be given assistance to do so.

I have a right to express my ideas, feelings, and thoughts without being interrupted or punished.


I have a right to expect all these rights will be mine in all circumstances so long as I am exercising my full responsibilities.


MY RESPONSIBILITIES:

I have the responsibility to treat others with dignity and respect. I will not laugh at others, tease others, or try to hurt the feelings of others.

I have a responsibility to make the school safe by not…
hitting anyone
kicking anyone
pushing anyone
threaten anyone
hurt anyone.

I have a responsibility not to take or destroy the property of others.

I have a responsibility to help maintain a calm and quiet school. This means I will not…
yell
scream
shout
or otherwise disturb others.


I have a responsibility to honor the right of others to learn in this school.


I have the responsibility to listen to others, consider their ideas, and allow others to be heard.

I have a responsibility to protect my rights and the rights of other by exercising my full responsibilities in all circumstances.

We must become what it is we wish to teach!

How hard would something like the above sample be to do in your classroom?

In your school?

be well... mike

[Ellen Pham]

Hi Mike, I have been trying to remember the school-wide student management plan that one of my friends worked with about 1998... it was a national program, I believe, and had a name... anyway, she taught in an elementary school, and she liked the program a lot. This article from Issues in Teacher Education, March 2007 is the closest I can get to it... interesting.

[Mike]

Hi All.... thanks Ellen for the link.... very interesting article.

The case should be interesting to follow.... and the fact that in 2009 our students have very few formal rights in school continues and is rarely mentioned.

Expectation of Obedience in the behavioral domain..... effect the Cognitive domain too.

One can not teach critcal thinking very well in an environment of behavioral and emotional obedience....

In all the talk i hear about preparing our children for the 21st Century.... i never hear much concerning student choices....student rights....student anything......

Wonder if we can teach 21st century skills to any body with out asking them for imput?
Is that a 21st century teaching skill?
Has any one been in a highschool that does student surveys or have some mechanism to at least get a small look at what the kids are thinking?
Do students ever get to evaluate their place of learning?
Are they part of the school community and how is this demonstrated?
How often do students collaborate with their teachers on work?

be mike