The Edjurist - Information on School and Educational Law

In the case that has probably generated more posts on this site than any other (that's what happens when the plaintiff leaves a comment), Savana Redding has finally won her case against the school that strip searched her over missing Ibuprofen. The 9th Circuit, sitting En Banc, ruled 6-5 that the strip search was not reasonable under the 4th Amendment. (ABA Journal).

Common sense informs us that directing a thirteen-year-old girl to
remove her clothes, partially revealing her breasts and pelvic area,
for allegedly possessing ibuprofen, an infraction that poses an
imminent danger to no one, and which could be handled by keeping her in
the principal’s office until a parent arrived or simply sending her
home, was excessively intrusive.

Clearly, correct.

I have made my feelings known on this case before, and obviously I feel the Court reached the right outcome here, even if it did take an En Banc review. Now, barring review by the Supreme Court (see below), Savana can rest easily and feel that justice was finally served.

As to the effect on educational law, I do think this case will have an impact although it broke no new constitutional ground. The reasonableness standard and its two prongs (justified at its inception and reasonable in scope) continued to be the analysis used by the Court, but what this case does is find that the reasonableness standard is not a protection for school officials, as the dissent argues. School officials can (and do) violate this standard and when they do they are putting their schools at risk and should be appropriately punished. It is up to the judges to determine reasonableness under the Constitution; it is not something that should be left wholly at the administrator's discretion.

Second, I know many ed. law professors that try to draw fine lines between strip searches and searches that are not strip searches but involve the removal of some, but not all, clothing. That should stop after this case. I would advise administrators to no longer engage in the removal of student clothing. The administrators in this case attempted to not go so far as a strip in this case by not fully removing her underwear, but the removal of the outer layers of clothing was enough to constitute a strip search. Unless in dire and/or highly justifiable circumstances, the removal of clothing should probably not be considered an option.

We may not have heard the last of this case, however. Because of the publicity, the Circuit, the outcome, and the period of time since T.L.O. was decided, I do give this case a 15-20% chance or so of being heard by the Supreme Court. But, either way, this case will continue to be referred to for years to come when discussing reasonable suspicion in schools.