WASHINGTON - The case for the girl who was strip-searched in school when she was only 13 for suspicion that she had extra-strength ibuprofen in her underwear went all the way to the Supreme Court, where they gave a skeptical hearing.
Most of the justices only voiced their concerns about drugs, specifically heroin and crack cocaine, and they said that they were wary of limiting officials' authority to search students for any drugs they may have.
"How is a school administrator supposed to know?" Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. asked. "He sees a white pill and doesn't know if it is something terribly harmful, even deadly, or if it's prescription-strength ibuprofen."
In earlier years before this case, a vice principal at an Arizona middle school in 2003 told a school nurse to take one of the students Savana Redding to an office and to not only search her, but search her underwear as well if she was hiding any pills. She had nothing to hide.
She and her mother later sued Safford school officials on grounds, for the reason that they had subjected her to a completely "unreasonable search."
Just before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last year, she had won the case which ruled that the strip-search of an eighth-grader was unreasonable and that the school officials who were ordered to do the search were liable for damages.
If affirmed, that ruling will put a new limit on school searches nationwide.
A ruling in the case of Safford School District vs. Redding is scheduled to be issued by late June.
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