The War on Drugs: Another Casualty

Over the last forty years, the "War on Drugs" has produced a literal battlefield of casualties. One of the most troubling of these casualties was a thirteen year old female high school student who was stripped searched by school authorities, while on school property . The facts of this unsettling case are identified in Redding v. Safford Unified School District.

The catalyst for the search began when another student was found with drugs and claimed that she obtained them from the subject of the strip search.  Although the student subject of the search denied the accusation and a search of her backpack produced no evidence, the principle insisted that a female assistant and a school nurse conduct the strip search, which included the removal of the student’s bra and panties. Suffice it to say, that search was non-productive as well.

It was not surprising that the student sued the school district, the principal and various others for invading her Constitutional Rights. The case has reached the United States Supreme Court to determine, among other things, whether the principal’s conduct was immune from civil liabilities.