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Strip Searches In Schools Research Paper

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Dylan Zuk What rights are limited in schools and what is the school legally allowed to do? This has been a topic that occurred many times throughout history. Strip searches are unconstitutional in some cases due to the Fourth Amendment. Schools are not allowed to strip search any student in any circumstances, they have to leave it to a higher authority. In this case, the school officials performed a strip search on a female, thinking it was the right thing to do, meanwhile, it was illegal. Argued in April of 2009, Savana Redding was a 13 year old girl in eighth grade at Safford Middle School who was accused of trafficking over-the-counter pain relievers to another girl. Reddings friend, Marissa, had been caught with pills that were both …show more content…

She was acting as the respondent(Safford Unified School District). She was suing the school for going against her daughter’s Fourth Amendment rights. She felt that the search was uncalled for and illegal according to the Fourth Amendment. The defendants were the school officials, including Kerry Wilson. April Redding felt that her daughter’s Fourth Amendment right was violated because the school officials had no authority to perform a strip search under the circumstances that were present. The questions that were being tried were, was her Fourth Amendment right violated due to the search of her underwear? Another question was are schools officials as individuals liable for the result of the lawsuit, or does the school take the blame for the end result(Safford Unified School District). The Arizona District Court ruled that the actions taken place at the school did not violate Redding’s rights(Case Brief Summary). The case was appealed and taken to the Supreme Court on April 21, 2009. The Supreme court ruled the strip search a violation of Redding’s Fourth Amendment rights. Everything that they had done before the strip search was legal and constitutional, but once they performed a strip search, they did not have substantial evidence that Savana Redding was hiding drugs in her underwear(Safford Unified School District). Wilson has enough suspicion to search Savana’s backpack and

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