The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that school officials violated an Arizona teenager�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.
In an 8-1 ruling, the justices said that Safford Middle School officials violated the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches with their treatment of Savana Redding.
The court ruled that the officials could not be held financially liable but left it to lower courts to decide if the school district could.
While children�s advocates and civil liberties groups cheered the decision, others suggested the high court may have created further problems for school systems by failing to make clear exactly when school administrators can strip-search students and when they can�t.
Redding was 13 when the educators in rural eastern Arizona conducted the search in 2003. They were looking for pills � the equivalent of two Advils. The district bans prescription and over-the-counter drugs without advance permission, and the school was acting on a tip from another student.
The search of Redding�s backpack and outer clothes was permissible, the court said. But the justices said that officials went too far when they asked to search her underwear.
�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,� Justice David Souter wrote in Thursday�s majority opinion.
In a dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas said the search had been legal and the court previously had given school officials �considerable leeway� under the Fourth Amendment in school settings.
In this case, officials had searched the girl�s backpack and found nothing, Thomas said. �It was eminently reasonable to conclude the backpack was empty because Redding was secreting the pills in a place she thought no one would look,� he said.