grammarwoman | Beyond the valley of WTF

A friend's Facebook page alerted me to a proposal that's going up for vote today at the Board of Education meeting for our school district. They want to amend the current "Search and Seizure" policy to include the following:

"If school administrative personnel suspect that circumstances warrant a body or strip search or circumstances require immediate police intervention to protect the safety of the school, students, or personnel, the matter shall be referred to the local police authority immediately. School personnel shall not conduct strip searches or body cavity searches.

School officials shall contact the parents/legal guardians of the student(s) involved in the search activities as soon as possible following the search. School officials will notify parents/legal guardians following the confiscation of student possessions."

Over my dead body will they conduct a strip or body cavity search of the Emperor without me and/or my husband there!

I sent off an angry letter, and got this in reply (from a woman, mind you):

"Thank you for your note of concern. We will be discussing this board policy this evening. As a parent, I would be very unhappy if someone stripped searched my daughter without my knowledge, or without me present. With that being said, the safety of all the students and faculty/staff in the building are of the utmost importance. School personnel, according to the policy are referring this matter to the professionals (Police) who are trained in this procedure. There could be a time when it is urgent to find out what a student may be hiding on their person, for their safety and the safety of others - how do we decide what matters most - calling their parent/guardian or the safety of the student and others? I would certainly welcome your thoughts on this - it's a tough decision and we certainly don't enter into it lightly. Please feel free to share your thoughts - it's important that we hear from our community. "

Holy CRAPBALLS, woman - they have fucking metal detectors at the high schools. What the hell could a kid sneak past those that you're willing to give up your daughter's right to not be violated in order to potentially find? Oh, right, it would never happen to your daughter, so you're fine with it. Someone else's kid totally deserves it when it happens.

INFERNOS ON THE SIDE OF MY FACE!

ETA on Tuesday: the report I got of the meeting from a friend is:

"NAACP and five others spoke about proposal. All urged amendments. Board has received one proposed amendment from their lawyer, defining "reasonable suspicion". Will also look into including amendments that require parental notification and making distinctions between searching objects (bookbags, purses, phones, computers, etc.) vs. searching a person's body. Board has tabled current proposal and will meet next Monday at 6p.m. for further discusstion."

Not passed yet, but not thrown out completely either. Still in disbelief that actual people, not robots, want to enact this.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Is that even legal? My understanding has always been that the police aren't allowed to have contact with a minor unless the minor's legal guardian or parent has approved it. Searching a locker is a LONG way away from strip searching a child. Holy shit, that's just fifty different kinds of wrong. I'd say a legal challenge is in the offing if the school board does pass it.

I can't possibly understand how it can be legal, either, for just those reasons.

I...

I'm so sorry. I am raging here right along with you. You give 'em hell.

Thanks, dear. I am not normally moved to complain to the actual people causing the problem; it was empowering to put on my Mama Bear pants and let 'em have it.

Every single person I've talked to about this has agreed that it's completely outrageous. It's made me feel a little better about humanity, but only a little.

Holy crap. Seconding what

medie said. How is that even legal? I really hope that that proposal doesn't go through.

See my ETA above - the decision has been punted to next week. I'm glad it wasn't passed outright, but still in disbelief that it's under consideration at all.

I'm with a couple of the above responses. I don't think that would be legal without the parents/guardians present, at least not as young as I get the feeling the Emperor is. Maybe an older teenager in the cases of possible violence, but that's even pushing it. And informing the parents AFTER the search? Oooh, they're just ASKING for trouble, no matter their warning you it MIGHT happen if the situation arises.

Make some noise. Inform the paper, hell, the ACLU would probably love getting in on something like this, or some group along those lines.

I can understand feeling something like that might be necessary, but wow is that school board over-stepping their bounds, whether or not the Police are doing it.

There could be a time when it is urgent to find out what a student may be hiding on their person, for their safety and the safety of others - how do we decide what matters most - calling their parent/guardian or the safety of the student and others?

This sentence alone would have me raging. The decision should be about where to hold the child until their parents/guardians are present before they decide to do anything, let alone strip search a child.

Just, WOW.

The Emperor will be seven in the fall - the violence he would commit on someone trying something like that (we get beat up just play-wrestling with him!) would be nothing on what I would do.

I'm guessing that the local groups opposed to this have or are planning on contacting the ACLU. See my ETA above.

I really, really wanted to attack the woman for replying with that (as a woman, how could she even think that?), but I kept it civil. I feel so bad for her daughter.

Yeah - I'm pretty sure that the schools can't implement a policy that violates legal statutes and since the police aren't allowed to *speak* to a minor w/o a parent or guardian present, how the fuck are they gonna be allowed to strip or body-cavity search them w/o a parent or guardian?

I hope some lawyers are present in that school board meeting.

Evidently the school board had a lawyer on their side, dunno about the opposition.

I have no idea how this can be at all legal, and how people thought it would be a good idea. As my husband and I were saying last night, we'd rather a kid smuggled into the school a 5 pound sack of heroin up his ass with no consequences than punish the rest of the kids for it.

Apparently the lawyer for the school board failed some classes.

And this type of response is a lot like the TSA responses to bad things ending up on airplanes - there's a little ant, so smash it with a bulldozer.

Exactly like the TSA response: blow it completely out of proportion to catch a .01% problem.

If something like this passed at my kid's school, my husband would take it to the supreme fucking court. I kid you not, he is just that kind of tenacious prick that you so desperately want on the side of your son or daughter.

Make sure that you let them know that if they perform a body cavity search and find nothing, that isn't a fucking body cavity assault. That's rape, you fuckers. Hell, it's rape even if they *do* find something. These are KIDS here!

RAGE!!

Your husband sounds awesomely protective. Go him!

I flat-out stated in my response to Ms. Wrongheaded above:

"With all the safety measures that are currently in place at our schools, there is no situation that warrants such violation of the dignity and bodies of our minor children. I cannot begin to stress enough how wide open this proposal is to potential misconduct and malice. How can we promise to protect our children from unwanted contact everywhere but in their schools? How can the threat of this policy looming over those unfortunate children who are already survivors of assault and sexual abuse be anything but outright intimidation and a source of ongoing distress?

I for one refuse to trade the rights of our children to be safe from invasive assault for the short-sighted illusion of security offered by this proposal."

If this proposal doesn't die in a fire, there are definitely going to be heads on the block. This is a university town - I don't see the school board cowing the population of well-paid, well-educated parents here.

Beyond the valley of WTF

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