Court grants school strip search case (Jan. 16, 2009)

The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether a public school violated a 13-year-old Arizona girl's constitutional rights by conducting a strip search of her for ibuprofen.

Savana Redding, an eighth-grade student at the Safford Middle School in Safford, Ariz., , was accused by a classmate of hiding prescription-strength ibuprofen pills. Redding was sent to the school nurse's office and told to strip to her underwear, move her bra to the side and pull her underwear out, exposing her breasts and pelvic area.

No pills were discovered, and Redding’s mother filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on her daughter’s behalf.

School officials contend that the search was reasonable, pointing out that the pills had been found on campus and said a similar incident had sent a student to the hospital.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona ruled for the school district, holding that school officials did not violate Redding’s Fourth Amendment rights in any respect as the search complied with the standard set forth by the 9th Circuit in New Jersey v. TL.O., 469 U.S. 325 (1985).

A divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit reversed. The majority held that “the strip search of Savana was neither ‘justified at its inception,’ New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325, 341 (1985), nor, as a grossly intrusive search of a middle school girl to locate pills with the potency of two over-the-counter Advil capsules, ‘reasonably related in scope to the circumstances’ giving rise to its initiation.”

On Jan. 16, the U.S. Supreme Court accepted the case for review. The justices will hear oral arguments in April.

Question presented: Whether the Fourth Amendment prohibits public school officials from conducting a strip search of a student suspected of possessing and distributing a prescription drug on campus in violation of school policy.