Some sanity after all

Well halle-effing-lujah. The Supreme Court ruled for Redding.

I personally have Very Strong Feelings about the issue of searches, whether they be at airports, stadiums, subways, or schools. When it comes to schools, I understand what the Supreme Court intended with New Jersey v. TLO and I understand the schools' arguments in that case. But in TLO the Supreme Court ruled that a school search requires "reasonable grounds for suspecting that the search will turn up evidence that the student has violated or is violating either the law or the rules of the school."

Random student drug testing doesn't pass that test (I've spent quite a bit of time frothing at the mouth over that topic, thankyouverymuch), and a strip search of someone based on hearsay doesn't either. And even if it did, if a strip search were attempted on my child while I wasn't there, I would personally make every official involved wish they'd never been born.

(I say attempted, because I'm going to teach my children that if anyone ever tries to strip search them while I'm not present, it's okay to punch, bite, and/or maim said authority figure if they even so much as touch an arm after my child has made his or her feelings on the subject clear.)

I'm all for safety, but I refuse to believe the only way to have it is to take a dump on the reasonable expectation of privacy every citizen supposedly enjoys. Not only that, but in this case we're talking about children, and often children who are only a few years away from being voting, taxpaying citizens. What kind of a message does it send when their rights are so casually violated?

(On a related note, Todd once told me he refused to fly with me if I insisted on carrying this in the airport. He seemed to think it sends the wrong message, like CAVITY SEARCH CANDIDATE HERE, RIGHT HERE.)

So, the point is, I'm THRILLED the Supreme Court ruled that the school violated the Fourth Amendment when they strip-searched a 13-year-old girl, an honors student who'd never been in trouble, over a couple of ibuprofen another student said she had. On the downside, I'm not so pleased that Clarence Thomas has once again proven himself to be an unmitigated douchebag.