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When Savana Redding was 13 years old, she was strip searched by officials of her Safford,
AZ middle school.
ACLU presents
Ever since I was little I loved school. I never wanted to miss a day of it.
Screen shows: Newspaper article: Strip searches at school: Discipline gone
too far?
Savana Redding Plaintiff in Supreme Court Case
I was in class, and the vice principal came and got me out of class; and, he started asking
me some things, some questions about pills and some other contraband, and I told him:
"No! No, I don't know what that is, where it came from, and I haven't seen it". And,
he asked me if he could search my back pack. I told him: "Yeah, go ahead". So he brought
the secretary in, and then he asked me to follow her. We ended up in the nurse's office.
And, then she asked me to take off my pants and my shirt and when I did that, I gave it
to them and stood there in my underwear while they were searching in the seams and shaking
them and just looking for something. I looked down. I didn't want to look at their faces.
I didn't want to cry. I didn't want to be...to add the extra embarrassment onto it.
Graham Boyd ACLU Legal Counsel
This traumatizing search of Savana, done for no good reason, yielded absolutely nothing.
When it turned up nothing, well, there was no apology. There was no explanation. She
was just told to go sit in the hallway for hours at a time until the school day ended
and then she was sent home.
April Redding Savana's mother
When Savana came out, she was very withdrawn. She got into the vehicle not wanting to look
at me. Crying. When I got home I was so upset. I still called the school. No one returned
my calls. So I called the sheriffs department.
GB: Savana was searched on the say-so of really just another student who was, herself, in
trouble. She had been found that day to have pills on her. In order to shift the blame,
she said: "Savana, gave me the pills". That wasn't true, but that was enough that the
vice-principal ordered that Savana be strip-searched. That violates any normal sense of what ought
to happen under the Constitution.
SR: When I was a kid, and they asked me to do this, I didn't know, you know, that it
was wrong. I didn't know that I could say no. Even police have to have a warrant in
order to perform any kind of search like that, so why do schools get to do it at just the
slightest whim?
AR: I would like for every parent in the US to understand the authority that we've given
schools. I feel that I've experienced with my daughter that they can do pretty much whatever
they like because they're acting on your behalf.
GB: Back in 1985, the Supreme Court decided a case that dealt with the search of a student's
purse, and that set the standard for ordinary searches: back packs, lunch boxes, that sort
of thing. This case deals with a much more intrusive search, a strip-search, and that
will, I think, set a standard for the next generation of how much leeway school authorities
have to perform this sort of search and perhaps by broader implication what kind of authority,
power, the government has to search any of us.
SR: It's about me to a certain extent. What they did was wrong. And, they feel like they
didn't do anything wrong; and, that really hurts. But, it's more about other kids.
Screen shows: Newspaper Article High court to consider limits on strip-searches
at schools. Strip-Search of Young Girl Tests Limit of
School Policy
SR: I guess what really motivates me is I really don't want this to happen again, ever.
Screen shows: Share your message of support with Savana:
http://www.aclu.org/savana