Media reactions to strip search case

The American Association for Justice put together a nice summary of media reactions to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Safford Unified School Dist. #1 v. Redding which I have included below with links to the stories.

In the case, the court ruled 8-1 that “an Arizona middle school violated the rights of a 13-year-old girl when she was strip-searched for drugs,” as ABC World News (6/25, story 5, 2:20, Gibson) reported. On the CBS Evening News (6/25, story 5, 1:45, Couric), correspondent Wyatt Andrews called the ruling “a major victory for student privacy. The Supreme Court said the strip search of Savana Redding, then a 13-year-old eighth grader, was unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment.” Redding: “I’m glad that it’s almost finally over and I can just continue on with my life. I’m really happy, though, with the decision today.” NBC Nightly News (6/25, story 7, 2:25, B. Williams) said the case involved “just how far public schools can go to enforce those so-called zero tolerance policies that have become so popular. And the question: have they gone too far with our own children?”
 
The USA Today (6/26, Biskupic) reports Justice David Souter, writing for the court, “said an official must have a ‘reasonable suspicion of danger’ regarding the drugs sought and a belief they could be hidden in a student’s underwear before making ‘the quantum leap from outer clothes and backpacks to exposure of intimate parts.’”

The USA Today (6/26) editorializes, “It should be obvious to everyone, and certainly to every parent, that only the most extreme circumstances could justify strip-searching a 13-year-old girl. More extreme, surely, than suspicion that the girl possessed some prescription-strength ibuprofen tablets in violation of school rules. That logic is at least obvious to the U.S. Supreme Court. … The Redding decision could mark a welcome change in direction for the courts and schools, which retain wide latitude to inspect lockers and other student possessions with only ‘reasonable suspicion.” In a responding USA Today (6/26) op-ed, National School Boards Association general counsel Francisco Negron writes that “the court missed an opportunity to provide clearer guidance to school officials. While the court did not nullify zero-tolerance policies, it did require schools to determine the dangerousness of a drug before deciding how intrusive to make a search. It did not specify what it meant by dangerousness. How are school officials to gauge that?”Los Angeles Times (6/26, Savage) reports Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, saying the ruling “‘grants judges sweeping authority to second-guess the measures that these officials take to maintain discipline in their schools and ensure the health and safety of the students in their charge.’ It is the second time this week that Thomas alone has dissented in a major case. On Monday, the court rejected a challenge to the Voting Rights Act, but Thomas said he would have struck down the law provision in question as unconstitutional.”

AP (6/25, Holland) reports the court ruled Safford Middle School officials violated Redding’s rights “by strip-searching her for prescription-strength ibuprofen, declaring that U.S. educators cannot force children to remove their clothing unless student safety is at risk.” While the court said officials violated Redding’s Fourth Amendment rights, the court also said officials “could not be held financially liable but left it to lower courts to decide if the school district could.” 

The Washington Post (6/26, A1, Barnes), the Wall Street Journal (6/26, A2, Bravin), New York Times (6/26, A16, Liptak), New York Daily News (6/26, Meek), National Law Journal (6/26, Mauro) and Christian Science Monitor (6/26, Richey) also report on the ruling. 

The Washington Post (6/26, A24) editorializes, “A six-justice majority correctly balanced the privacy interests of the student with the need to preserve school officials’ flexibility to maintain order and safety. … The court — with Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissenting on this point — also rightly refused to allow lawsuits against the Arizona school officials, ruling that they should be immune from being sued unless they blatantly violated ‘clearly established law.’” 

The New York Times (6/26, A24) editorializes, “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.”

Student strip search ruled unconstitutional

In a surprising victory for student’s rights, the United States Supreme Court today issued an opinion ruling that the strip search of a 13-year-old middle school student Savana Redding was unconstitutional. You can view our previous posts on this case by clicking here and here. This is a very good ruling for student’s rights and upholds the principle that their rights do not end at the schoolhouse door. It further provides clarity to school district in just how far they can reasonably go in an effort to make their free of drugs.

The opinion was authored by retiring Justice David Souter, perhaps one of his last opinions as a Justice. You can find a complete copy of the opinion by clicking here.

The Court ruled 8-1 in favor of the student, finding that the mere suspicion of finding a small quantity of ibuprofen was unreasonable and did not justify the search in her underwear. In so finding, the court determined that the content of the suspicion failed to match the degree of intrusion to the student. As the Court ruled: “What was missing from the suspected facts that pointed to Savana was any indication of danger to the students from the power of the drugs or their quantity, and any reason to suppose that Savana was carrying pills in her underwear. We think that the combination of these deficiencies was fatal to finding the search reasonable.”

The Court went on to describe the embarrassment and humiliation suffered by the student because of the search.

Savana’s subjective expectation of privacy against such a search is inherent in her account of it as embarrassing, frightening, and humiliating. The reasonableness of her expectation (required by the Fourth Amendment standard) is indicated by the consistent experiences of other young people similarly searched, whose adolescent vulnerability intensifies the patent intrusiveness of the exposure.

The Court made it clear that searches of this nature require “the support of reasonable suspicion of danger or of resort to underwear for hiding evidence of wrongdoing before a search can reasonably make the quantum leap from outer clothes and backpacks to exposure of intimate parts. The meaning of such a search, and the degradation its subject may reasonably feel, place a search that intrusive in a category of its own demanding its own specific suspicions.”

Only Justice Clarence Thomas voted with the school in the case. Justice Thomas continued his consistent opposition to such individual rights, particularly when invoked by students. In one line, he wrote “[p]reservation of order, discipline and safety in public schools is simply not the domain of the Constitution. And, common sense is not a judicial monopoly or a constitutional imperative.”

Columbine lessons still resonate

My vacation week read this year was Dave Cullen’s excellent work entitled Columbine. It’s an indelible portrait of the killers, the victims, and the community that suffered one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century. This book was released nearly 10 years after the event, and is a riveting page turner which will help the reader understand better what happened at a suburban high school on April 20, 1999.

On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, entered their high school in Littleton, Colo., and shot and killed 12 students and one teacher. That event sparked a number of changes in how students experience school.

Cullen is considered a leading authority on the Columbine killers. In his book, he tries hard to get us inside the heads of Eric and Dylan, writing in an empathetic style that allows us to inhabit their twisted points of view. It’s a compelling study of not only their minds, but the reaction of the community, the country, the victims, and their families. You don’t come away understanding exactly why the event happened, but you do have a better sense of how. Throughout the book, you can feel the pain, and better understand the efforts at making schools safer that have occurred in the past 10 years.

As noted by USA Today, some of the most important post-Columbine reforms include:

• Better partnerships between law enforcement and schools. After Columbine, the federal government funded the placement of 7,000 police officers in schools, many in a more consultative and mentoring role, not just to deal with trouble. Today, schools across the country have “resource officers.” Many are part of teams that include teachers and mental health professionals.
• Encouraging students to report suspicions. A study by the U.S. Education Department and the Secret Service of 41 shooters, including the Columbine killers, found that most planned their rampages in advance, told other kids and were egged on by others. Now, many schools encourage students to report suspicions, including on anonymous tip lines. Tips have foiled several plots.
• Watching for red flags. A 2002 report found that most of the attackers it studied were depressed and had difficulty coping with “significant losses or personal failures.” Almost three-quarters felt “persecuted, bullied, threatened, attacked or injured by others.” These problems often went undetected. Most did fine academically, and only 37% had ever been suspended or expelled. This has led to more vigilance and adult interaction with students at many schools. USA TODAY profiled one — Lucy Addison Middle School in Roanoke, Va. — in which a typical teacher focuses on the “little things” such as body language, insults, a look in the eyes. More mental health professionals are in schools, and 38 states have anti-bullying laws.
• Better reaction plans. Columbine-style attackers generally want to kill as many as possible and themselves. There is a new recognition of a need to move in fast. It’s now the basis of emergency drills and practice — a change from Columbine, where police lacked basic information about school layout, took four hours to get into the school, and where more than 900 officers from 34 agencies were working on different radio frequencies.

As a parent and School Committee member, this book was compelling. It has lessons in it for parents, educators, law enforcement, and even citizens not directly connected with schools.

Classic unfunded mandate on musical instruments

What’s an unfunded mandate is a typical question raised, particularly during budget season. A recent bill submitted to the Massachusetts House of Representatives that would require the sterilization of all school band instruments is a classic example.

The bill known as H5176, received initial approval in December 2008 and would require that beginning in January 2010, all public and private schools in the state must sanitize any woodwind or brass instrument (such as a flute, clarinet, trumpet, or trombone) prior to loaning it to a student for use. The committee on Health Care Financing, to whom was referred the report of the Special Commission established (under Chapter 2 of the Resolves of 2007), providing for an investigation and study relative to examining hygienic procedures relative to band instruments (House, No. 5124), reports recommending that the accompanying bill (House, No. 5176) ought to pass. The bill reads as follows:

Any musical wind instrument provided by any school, public or private, to a student in grades pre-K through 12, for any instruction or activity of any nature, shall be thoroughly sterilized prior to issuance to each student who uses such instrument. Such musical wind instruments shall be sterilized through a process destroying all microbial life including, but not limited to, bacteria, fungi, viruses and endspores. The sterilization shall be performed by the school issuer using a certified sterilant approved by the environmental protection agency and the process protocol shall be established by the department of public health. Compliance and enforcement shall be under the jurisdiction of the department of public health.

The bill, if passed, would have far reaching effects on local school band programs. Some have suggested that the costs associated with the sterilization process run the range of $50-$80 per instrument. The bill does not come with any funding for local districts to support this program. What that means is that local communities will have to come up with the funds themselves, despite the fact that they are already facing fiscal catastrophe.

With communities like Franklin facing substantial deficits and being called upon to eliminate or cut programs, including music, we think the focus should be on reducing financial burdens. As some have suggested, the elimination of music and arts programs that are being considered during the budget process may very well solve the alleged public health problem on its own. Rather than a sterilization bill, we would like to hear ways the legislature is looking to help us keep these programs intact; ways that we can ensure that our students are getting educated in the arts as required under the Massachusetts Constitution (Chapter V, Section II, entitled, the Encouragement of Literature, etc.).

No one argues with the intentions of the supporters of this bill. Indeed, keeping instruments free of bacteria is an important goal. However, the bill overlooks the fact that most communities, including Franklin, already take steps to ensure the safety of musical instruments. A bill such as this is an example of overreaction to a problem that may not even exist.

While this bill may be a “stimulus” package for sterilization equipment and supplies manufacturers, it’s nothing but a classic unfunded mandate and burden to financially strapped communities. Accordingly, the bill ought to be swiftly defeated.

WASTED drug and alcohol program audio online

Drug and alcohol use by teenagers is troubling to say the least. It often leads to severe consequences, and as one doctor has noted, drugs are an equal opportunity destroyer. Researchers suggest that adolescents who start using alcohol or marijuana before they’re 15 have an increased pattern of substance abuse, criminal convictions, academic failure, and sexually transmitted disease by the time they’re 32.

Franklin, like many communities throughout the United States, has been grappling with issue. The issue has come before the School Committee on a number of occasions and we have launched a town wide Health Safety Council to address the concerns. That group has been meeting regularly and sponsoring programs in Franklin. In a recent flyer, the group observed that our own MetroWest Adolescent Health Survey gives us the reported alcohol use for our children, and the numbers are alarming:

48% report alcohol use in the past 30 days

29% report binge drinking in the past 30 days

27% report riding in a car with someone who had been drinking

19% report driving a car while drinking alcohol

An ad hoc committee comprised of high school faculty/administration, parents and community leaders have gathered to establish W.A.S.T.”E”.D. (When Alcohol Starts To “E”ffect Decisions). Last night, the group hosted a special meeting for parents. An outside speaker donated his services for this night which included student messages on the topic based on true stories of drug and alcohol abuse.

The meeting was captured on audio by local blogger Steve Sherlock. You can listen to the presentations and discussion that took place last night by clicking here. It’s not an easy message to hear, but as one author said it well, listening is an act of love.

Using photographs to stop the worldwide XDR-TB epidemic

Please permit me to go a bit off-topic to tell you about an important event taking place today.

Award-winning photojournalist James Nachtwey is premiering a slideshow on the disease XDR-TB that is the culmination of his wish to share an underreported worldwide story using news photography in the digital age. The story will be spread via an eight-page spread in TIME magazine, a gathering of global activists and leaders, and outdoor screenings around the world and across the Internet in an effort to raise awareness about the disease.

The slideshow is the subject of Nachtwey’s TED Prize wish. The TED Prize is awarded annually to three exceptional individuals who each receive $100,000 and granting of “One Wish to Change the World.” In raising awareness about XDR-TB, a virulent, mutated strain of traditional TB existent in 49 countries and responsible for more than 20,000 preventable deaths each year, Nachtwey comments, “Photographers go to the extreme edges of human experience to show people what’s going on. They aim their pictures at your best instincts: generosity, a sense of right and wrong, the ability and the willingness to identify with others, the refusal to accept the unacceptable.”

Nachtwey’s slideshow will be screened in public spaces in cities around the world, including New York, Paris, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Seoul, Hong Kong, and London, on all 7 continents and across the internet starting on October 3, and continuing throughout the month. Paul Simon (singer/songwriter), Larry Brilliant (Google.org), Joanne Carter (RESULTS), Winstone Zulu (survivor), and Marcos Espinal (World Health Organization) will all gather with Nachtwey in New York City for a special event this evening.

Joanne Carter, executive director of RESULTS USA, the medical advocacy group supporting the campaign, says, “We hope that the visibility achieved by the global unveiling of these photos will underscore the danger of underfunding and lack of global attention to TB programs, spur people around the world to demand action, and spur world leaders to act.”

Using haunting images in a digital slideshow, this multimedia campaign will raise awareness about XDR-TB and launch a social action campaign with partnering organizations RESULTS and Demos UK. The TED Prize (given annually at the TED Conference in Long Beach, California) made Nachtwey’s project possible, along with medical technology company BD, TIME magazine, the Streaming Museum, Phantom Galleries, and many other key partners.

To learn more, please visit xdrtb.org and prepare to be shocked and moved. To view Nachtwey’s TED talk on the subject, click here.

Lawsuit against Lexington schools dismissed

A federal judge in Massachusetts threw out a lawsuit filed by Lexington parents who objected to discussions of gay couples in their children’s classrooms.

The case and issues which arose highlight some of the sensitive issues that school committees face.

U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf said federal courts have decided in other cases that the constitutional right of parents to raise their children does not include the right to restrict what a public school may teach them. Wolf said those earlier rulings also have held that teachings that contradict a parent’s religious beliefs do not violate their First Amendment right to exercise their religion.

In his decision, the judge stated:

In essence, under the Constitution public schools are entitled to teach anything that is reasonably related to the goals of preparing students to become engaged and productive citizens in our democracy. Diversity is a hallmark of our nation. It is increasingly evident that our diversity includes differences in sexual orientation. Our nation’s history includes a fundamental commitment to promoting mutual respect among citizens in our diverse nation that is manifest in the First Amendment’s prohibitions on establishing an official religion and restricting the free exercise of religious beliefs on which plaintiffs base some of their federal claims. Our history also includes instances of individual and official discrimination against gays and lesbians, among others. It is reasonable for public educators to teach elementary school students about individuals with different sexual orientations and about various forms of families, including those with same-sex parents, in an effort to eradicate the effects of past discrimination, to reduce the risk of future discrimination and, in the process, to reaffirm our nation’s constitutional commitment to promoting mutual respect among members of our diverse society. In addition, it is reasonable for those educators to find that teaching young children to understand and respect differences in sexual orientation will contribute to an academic environment in which students who are gay, lesbian, or the children of same-sex parents will be comfortable and, therefore, better able to learn.

The facts underlying the case involve parents who sued after their 5-year-old son brought home a book from kindergarten that depicted a gay family. Another Lexington couple joined the suit after a second-grade teacher read to the class a fairy tale that tells the story of two princes falling in love. Both couples claimed Lexington school officials violated their parental rights to teach their own morals to their children. They said they did not want to dictate curriculum but wanted to be told ahead of time when gay couples were being discussed so they could remove their young children from classrooms.

You may recall that this case involved a father who was arrested for trespassing as reported in the Boston Globe. He went to the school to object to the book and met with school officials. The meeting ended with the father’s arrest after he refused to leave the school.

Massachusetts law prohibits discrimination in public schools based on sex or sexual orientation. It also requires that public school curricula encourage respect for all individuals regardless of, among other things, sexual orientation. Pursuant to these directives, the Massachusetts Department of Education has issued standards which encourage instruction for pre-kindergarten through fifth grade students concerning different types of people and families.

The families assert that the defendants’ conduct violates their rights under the United States Constitution to raise their children and to the free exercise of their religion. They also contend that the defendants have violated the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, including the statute that requires that parents be given notice and an opportunity to exempt their children from any curriculum that “primarily involves human sexual education or human sexuality issues.” M.G.L. c. 71, § 32A.

For a copy of the full decision, click here.

Seat belts on school buses

Having received a number of inquires about the use of seat belts on school buses, I thought it would be a good idea to update folks on the latest information available on that issue. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) establishes Federal motor vehicle safety standards to reduce the number of fatalities and injuries from motor vehicle crashes, including crashes involving school buses. In May, 2006, NHTSA issued a report on seat belt use that is of interest. The bottom line is that NHTSA does not recommend seat belts on large school buses.

As noted in the report, there is no question that seat belts play an important role in keeping occupants safe in vehicles, however school buses are different by design and use a different kind of safety restraint system that works extremely well. Large school buses are heavier and distribute crash forces differently than do passenger cars and light trucks. Because of these differences, the crash forces experienced by occupants of buses are much less than that experienced by occupants of passenger cars, light trucks or vans. NHTSA decided that the best way to provide crash protection to passengers of large school buses is through a concept called “compartmentalization.” This requires that the interior of large buses provide occupant protection such that children are protected without the need to buckle-up. Through compartmentalization, occupant crash protection is provided by a protective envelope consisting of strong, closely-spaced seats that have energy-absorbing seat backs.

School bus crash data show that compartmentalization has been effective at protecting school bus passengers. NHTSA’s 2002 Report to Congress found that the addition of lap belts did not improve occupant protection for the severe frontal impacts that were studied for that report.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) have come to similar conclusions. The NTSB concluded in a 1987 study of school bus crashes that most fatalities and injuries occurred because the occupant seating positions were in direct line with the crash forces. NTSB stated that seat belts would not have prevented most of the serious injuries and fatalities from occurring in school bus crashes. In 1989, the NAS completed a study of ways to improve school bus safety and concluded that the overall potential benefits of requiring seat belts on large school buses were insufficient to justify a Federal mandate for installation. NAS also stated that the funds used to purchase and maintain seat belts might be better spent on other school bus safety programs and devices that could save more lives and reduce more injuries.

 

DPH summary report issued on salmonella

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) has issued an Executive Summary of its report on the salmonella outbreak at Jefferson Elementary School last spring. You may read the report by clicking here.

The state found that oul pellets were the likely cause, but school staff “had no indication that the owl pellets might be unsafe (and) all proper handling procedures were followed by teachers during this project based on the information provided.”

The outbreak in Franklin has led to new DPH guidelines on the “safe handling of owl pellets,” which have been posted on the agency’s web site. Click here to see the report.

In addition, Assistant Superintendent, Maureen Sabolinski and Director of Pupil Personnel Services, Linda Waters will now convene a committee of principals, teachers, school nurses and parents to review the MDPH’s Executive Summary and all Franklin public practices related to student illness, communicable diseases, school emergencies of a medical nature, and science experiments that use any biological materials. This committee will recommend any changes in school practices or School Committee Policy that it deems appropriate.

MPDH advisory on mosquito-borne diseases

A message from Superintendent of Schools Wayne R. Ogden:

After a conversation with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH), we would like to reinforce their safety recommendations with respect to the risk of mosquito-borne diseases. We encourage all parents to employ the personal protection procedures recommended by MDPH in their Public Health Advisory. Their personal protection procedures include:

· Wearing long sleeves, long pants and socks when outdoors at dusk.

· Apply mosquito repellents containing DEET, Picaridin, or Permethrin.

For additional information, go to the MDPH Advisory: “Recreational Activities and the Risk of Mosquito- Borne Diseases”