North Carolina Schools Fight to Search Bras for Drugs
The Supreme Court in North Carolina could soon give schools in the state the right to search the bras of students for drugs and other contraband.
The Daily Mail reports that back in 2008 a 15-year-old girl at Brunswick County Academy was forced to pull her bra away from her body to see if she was hiding drugs there. It turns out Percocet and other drug paraphernalia were found on her, and she later pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors.
However before the plea her lawyer asked the judge to throw out the evidence, saying the search invaded her privacy. The judge refused.
That part of the ruling was appealed, and the Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 in favor of the student, finding the search was "degrading, demeaning and highly intrusive."
The state appealed to the Supreme Court, with Assistant Attorney General LaToya Powell arguing that there was "a compelling governmental need" that outweighed the rights of individual privacy. Besides, Powell said, the search was minimal and at no time were the student's breasts exposed.
Regardless, it was still wrong according to the girl's lawyer.
"It is unconstitutional for our daughters to be treated this way by the public schools of North Carolina," attorney Geeta Kapur told the state's highest court.
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Some light reading.....
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/In+loco+parentis
An excerpt:
"...As a result, most campuses began to enforce Zero Tolerance drug polices. In 1995, the Supreme Court ruled that high schools were permitted to conduct random drug testing of student athletes (Vernonia School District v. Acton, 515 U.S. 646, 115 S. Ct. 2386, 132 L. Ed. 2d 564). According to the Court, such testing does not violate the reasonable Search and Seizure clause of the Fourth Amendment because students in school are under state supervision, and as such, the state (and the school) is responsible for their well-being..."
So what's the difference between what they do at security in airports and this? Republicans, ie. Ann Coulter, blasted getting frisked. Searching for drugs or trigger devices is all the same. Republican Rand Paul, raised a HUGE stink over getting frisked at an airport. I smell two-faced hypocrisy coming from the GOP on this.
Which Republicans support strip searching children for drugs?
I'm in the libertarian wing of the GOP, rather than the religious conservative side, yet I doubt there would be a whole lot of support from either for having school personnel searching children for drugs. The ones who actually support the War on Drugs would probably support having a search done by the police in response to probable cause, but that doesn't include all of us.
Personally, I'm opposed to the War on Drugs entirely, and think all drugs should be legalized. There's no hypocrisy here, and I suspect you would hear the same thing from Rand Paul.
The problem is that there is *bipartisan* support for prohibition. The statists in both parties love it because it increases their power.
But yeah, if you want to argue that those who are opposed to the TSA searches should be opposed to this also, you'll get no argument from me. I fully support fighting a *declared* war against specific terrorist groups in specific countries with the full might of our military, but this generalized "War on Terror" is, just like the War on Drugs, nothing more than a means of increasing the power of the state. Because it isn't being fought against a specific country, there is no means for arriving at an eventual peace settlement. The government can keep us on a war footing for as long as there is some group of psychopaths out there setting off the occasional bomb.
This is coming from a left leaning independent. Well said. I'd vote for Ron Paul except for his stances on the EPA, Soc Sec, unemployment, the 14th amendment, stem cell research and gay marriage. Otherwise I view him as one of very few congressmen that possess integrity.
I'm not crazy about Ron Paul either, and agree with you on his stem cell and gay marriage stances. In general, I don't like his "states' rights" view. States don't have rights, individuals have rights. The states shouldn't have the power to violate those rights, especially when they have been guaranteed by the US Constitution or a SCOTUS ruling.
I also dislike his narrow view of national security issues. I can't be as blasé as him about the prospect of Iran getting nuclear weapons.
I do like his small government viewpoint, though, and would gladly see the EPA, the Fed, and Soc Sec done away with.
You discredited yourself with this gem, "Searching for drugs or trigger devices is all the same."
Remember all those hijackers armed with bongs? No you don't.
I see a career change in my future. Bra-scanner.
J/K This is messed up.
So this is where our liberty has gone? it is ok to force teen girls to pull back their bras for drugs? What about full strip searches, is that ok? How about police conducting random strip searches for any teen walking down the street at any time, to see if they have drugs. How about random searches of their bedrooms, in order to see if they have drugs. I don't know about a war on drugs, but I sure know about a war on our civil liberties.
Jerome McCollom
A search for drugs seems to me as good an excuse as any.
This article needs recaptioned. Either "Pics or It Didn't Happen" or "T!ts or GTFO."
Hey, it's not sexual assault if they're wearing a uniform. The government says so.