grammarwoman: (Default)
Kim ([personal profile] grammarwoman) wrote2011-07-18 03:20 pm
Entry tags:

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.

harempriestess: (DMB Stand Up)

[personal profile] harempriestess 2011-07-19 03:25 am (UTC)(link)
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.