AN UNREASONABLE SEARCH

In an important victory for students' rights, the Supreme Court
ruled, 8-to-1, Thursday that school officials acted
unconstitutionally when they strip searched a 13-year-old girl. The
majority was too willing to find that in this particular case the
officials involved were immune from liability. But the decision still
sends an important message to schools about the need to respect their
students' privacy when they conduct investigations.

Savana Redding, an Arizona middle-school student, was strip searched
by school officials looking for prescription-strength ibuprofen. The
school acted on a sketchy accusation from a fellow student, who said
Ms. Redding had possessed ibuprofen pills in the past. The search --
which Ms. Redding understandably regarded as humiliating -- did not
turn up any pills.

Ms. Redding's mother sued, charging that the strip search violated
the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches. In
schools, the protection is reduced, but officials still must show
that a search was not overly intrusive in light of its purpose and
the age of the student.

Justice David Souter, writing for the majority, said the school was
justified in searching Ms. Redding's backpack and outer clothing. But
a strip search is of another order of magnitude, he noted, especially
when done on someone whose "adolescent vulnerability" magnifies the
intrusiveness.

In this case, the court said, the school's rationale did not justify
the search. The drugs -- a few ibuprofen pills -- posed only a
limited threat. And there was no legitimate reason to believe that
Ms. Redding was hiding anything in her underwear.

The decision will no doubt, rightly, discourage schools from
conducting strip searches of their students in all but the most
extreme circumstances.

The court should have gone on to hold the school officials involved
liable for damages. Regrettably, it ruled that the state of the law
was so uncertain before this ruling that the officials should be
given immunity for their actions. It sent the question of whether the
school district is liable back to a lower court to resolve.

Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for himself and Justice Ruth Bader
Ginsburg, noted that the standards for student searches have been
clear since a 1985 Supreme Court ruling laid them out. And as he
observed, it does not take a constitutional scholar to know that a
strip search of a 13-year-old child is a significant invasion of
constitutional rights.