SCHOOL'S STRIP-SEARCH OF TEEN UNNECESSARY, EXCESSIVELY INTRUSIVE

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court is about to get involved in one
of the most difficult of American subjects -- middle schools and the
care of their inmates who as they emerge half baked from babyhood more
resemble zoo animals.

Any parent can tell you it is this in-between age that's the most
difficult for them and their charges, a sort of purgatory where the
occupants without constant vigilance can go from promise to long-term
disaster in a split second. It is a land of temptation and
experimentation that taxes to the limit the oversight capabilities of
educators and leads them often into dangerous uncharted waters where
the rights of young people can be sucked into a vortex by
overzealousness.

Now the nation's highest court will decide whether that is what
happened to Savana Redding six years ago when she was a 13-year-old,
straight-A middle school student in Arizona. Despite her honor role
status and a spotless record in deportment, Savana underwent one of
the more humiliating experiences imaginable for a budding young woman.
After a search of her backpack found nothing, she was summarily hauled
into the school nurse's office and strip-searched to determine if she
was carrying pills, specifically Ibuprofen, an over-the-counter
equivalent of two Advils.

She was made to expose her breasts and pubic area to the searchers who
determined she was not hiding anything but her modesty.

The catalyst for this severe form of administrative probing aimed at a
drug-free environment and escape from potential liability apparently
was the word of a male student who said he had received Ibuprofen from
another girl. When she was found to have the pills, she put the blame
on Savana, who, she said, had provided them. The school officials
already had heard a complaint from another boy that Savana had a
before-dance party where alcohol was served. Savana denied both
allegations, stating that the boy who made the complaint had not even
been at the party.

The result of all this was that a traumatized young lady that never
attended classes again at the school, developed ulcers and eventually
dropped out of high school. She is now enrolled in Eastern Arizona
University after taking a placement test.

What seems amazing in the chain of events is that the school officials
based their actions on the utterly unsubstantiated say-so of two other
students who had good reason to lie their way out of the situation.
And if they think youngsters won't do that, they are so naive as to be
completely unworthy of their jobs. Against this, Savana's unblemished
record seemingly counted for nothing.

So for two-thirds of a decade a determined mother and the American
Civil Liberties Union have kept this case kicking around the federal
court system as jurists wrestle with the question of student privacy
under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. One judge ruled
against Savana. But the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals finally decided
the school had violated the amendment's protections against
unreasonable searches and that the vice principal who ordered it could
be held liable. Now the Supreme Court will try to settle the issue.

As is too often the case, a lack of common sense and caution marked
the entire incident. The mother, April Redding, was not called before
action was taken. The girl's record was subverted. The concern about
drugs, certainly not unwarranted in most junior high schools, took
precedence over the potential damage to a girl who was barely a
teenager. In 1985 the Supreme Court said school officials needed only
reasonable suspicions and not probable cause to search a student. But
that involved a girl's purse and not her body. In fact, the court
warned against "excessively intrusive" searches given the sex and age
of a student.

Quite obviously this was excessively intrusive and need not have been.
There was no reason to believe that a civilized after-school
conference with mother and daughter might not have been a better
solution given the child's grades and behavior. Her word should have
been given every bit as much weight as that of her accusers. It wasn't.

Actually, school officials were utterly unapologetic or even
sympathetic. How sad. Administrators need to be sensitive to the
fragility of kids this age and proceed accordingly.

Dan K. Thomasson, former editor of the Scripps Howard News Service.