Middle Schooler, Strip-Searched for Weed in Front of Other Students, Suing Georgia School District

2009 U.S. Supreme Court ruling found school officials can't perform even a partial strip search of a student

With the disturbingly common sexual abuse stories we see in the news, that had damn well better be the case.

This was absurd and excessive, I'm glad this person no longer has a job.

Its to the point where convicted criminals have more rights than our school children!

The "zero tolerance" policy that schools have adopted, leave students with NO Constitutional Rights. I have never supported this "policy" as it can and has been abused by the school admins across the country.

There is no amount of money that can give this young man back his dignity or reputation, but it sure as hell will help with the cost of his counseling! I hope this kid and his parents win a mutli-million dollar law suit against this school district. Money seems to be their [school admins] only concern and losing it the only language they'll understand..

ambivalent,

Can you imagine the humiliation this kid had to endure throughout the whole ordeal? Why weren't his parents called right away? Or the police if the VP thought he had credible cause to have the kid stripped searched?

Something smells horribly wrong here. But then again, this is the south. The Bible Belt land where common sense if much like the dodo bird. Extinct...

and when the student admitted to lying, they should have stopped.

No, it should have never started.

Keeping contol of pot, in school or out, is good. But this was over the top.

Keeping contol of pot, in school or out, is good

Actually, it's not -- I don't know where you get this notion that it is. Why don't you focus your efforts on substances that actually harm people, like alcohol and tobacco?

It certainly is not an excuse for this bull@!$%#.

If that were my kid, I'd be in the principal's office right now with a lawyer. And I'd be demanding his resignation.

Can you imagine the humiliation this kid had to endure throughout the whole ordeal?

No I can't. Kids do worse than this and laugh about it.

This ought to at least pay for a good college education.

This is what you get with republican rule.

Yeah it doesnt say his affiliation, just that he comes from the bible belt and a very right wing state, but this is the kind of @!$%# you get with republicans. If you aint did nothing wrong what have you got to fear? ask this kid.

Something I heard a friends kid say. He was afraid of the school security and administration...... So I said afraid !
Ya, he told me.. ". Security is always looking for problems. They always find some little thing to harass students over". They have students that tell on other kids
There you have it. All of this oversight, security, zero tolerance , authoritarian thinking. Has created an industry....
Like all industries they require a product. That product is harassment of our children. With all the trappings of authoritarian overseers. Security personnel, searches , snitches, summary punishment, no judges , no jury.
Sounds like a third world countries intelligence operation ..huh!

The logic of privatization of government services are so one sided. Privatization has led to redundant levels of security.
In the public. Sheriffs, local cops, school police, administration cameras everywhere. Why do we need so much security?

Oh ,,,,,It's profitable .....

Another triumphant moment for the war on drugs.

TooManyPuppies
Completely unneccessary. This article has no poltical affiliation and your assumptions don't pass as facts.
Bringing politics into this reflects poorly on you.

Actually, it's not -- I don't know where you get this notion that it is. Why don't you focus your efforts on substances that actually harm people, like alcohol and tobacco?

Hey, Busy Monster...maybe the harm in being uneducated is something worthy of intervention, as last I heard, stoned kids don't remember much. And if this article were about the fine merits of marijuana, I wouldn't have visited it. It's about the degradation of a student by someone whom he should have been able to trust.

maybe the harm in being uneducated is something worthy of intervention, as last I heard, stoned kids don't remember much

Well, when you actually know something, you let us all in on it. Re-vomiting debunked propaganda is a waste of your time and ours.

This article has no poltical affiliation and your assumptions don't pass as facts.

The War on Drugs was started by Richard Nixon and its targets were "hippies" who opposed his policies. It has ALWAYS been a political war. Best you recognize that.

Why don't you focus your efforts on substances that actually harm people, like alcohol and tobacco?

Um, this kid is in 7th grade. You actually don't see a problem with a 7th grader smoking pot?

P.S. the strip search is horrendous.

I'll pit my never-been-stoned brain cells against a stoner's any day.

One of my closest friends was a stoner throughout high school. She used to drool on herself in biology class. When she was told about it, she laughed until her makeup ran.

She has now passed on to that Great Weed Bed in the Sky. Lung cancer. Never smoked anything other than weed.

1500 carcinogens in each joint. Yep. I'd call that harmless.

Woodie how about Carl Sagan??? Are you smarter than him???

"The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world."
- Carl Sagan quote on Marijuana

Indeed as in prohibition when govt poisoned alcohol and killed thousands, this drug war needs to end.

Stop bashing weed please, weed is good and I'll pit my 48 year old been getting stoned for 32 of those years against your cannabis free brain anytime.

Alcohol is way more detrimental to the brain than Marijuana.

this is directly the republican party and the evangelicals fault...if I were the parents I would not only sue the school, but the republican party and the Southern Baptist Convention

Um, this kid is in 7th grade. You actually don't see a problem with a 7th grader smoking pot?

When I went to school there was a cigarette smoking area out back of the school. Yes. High school children were permitted to smoke on school grounds, with the tacit approval of the adults. At the same time, it was a high moral panic if someone got caught with a baggie.

One of those smoking habits leads to lung cancer and emphysema, and kills planeloads of people a year. The other causes zero deaths a year.

There's this disconnect that some call cognitive dissonance, and others just label wilful ignorance. I prefer the latter.

Yeah it doesnt say his affiliation, just that he comes from the bible belt and a very right wing state, but this is the kind of @!$%# you get with republicans.

this is directly the republican party and the evangelicals fault...if I were the parents I would not only sue the school, but the republican party and the Southern Baptist Convention

You may want to look at the school founders bio before you start blaming Republicans.

The school was wrong. The VP should be fired. But the school and it's founder have a pretty good reputation.

http://clayton2.white.schooldesk.net/AboutUs/EddieJWhite/tabid/10049/Default.aspx

This here stoner will take on any non-stoner any day too. BTW, I don't "smoke", I vaporize which removes all the "1500" carcinogens spoken of. Also, if given the choice, I would want my kid to experiment with marijuana and never alcohol! Alcohol would be banned completely and manufactures should be treated like meth labs. Alcohol is evil, period. The only use in medical situations it has is to kill, it's used to disinfect - it does not cure anything. Marijuana has never killed a single soul. If marijuana were legal, these kids could be being taught in school how to use it ideally - such as vaporizing not smoking. Or eating it instead of smoking it and how to not eat too much. The FDA is about to deluge the market with marijuana products to promote health while at the same time taking out the small-time marijuana business turning most of them into huge monster highly regulated operations funneling all the profits into the pockets of already phat pocket companies - all because they know marijuana is beneficial. We actually have THC receptors in our brain - every one of us whether we have smoked in this life time or not - we are hard wired to accept marijuana as a human compatible substance.

Strip searching a child is far more dangerous to their mental health than even a joint! Especially if vaporized :)

You may want to look at the school founders bio before you start blaming Republicans.

Maybe, none the less this district did vote for Bush/Cheney and McCain/Palin the last two Presidential elections.

Schools across the Nation are corrupt in many MANY ways! Largely due to self-fulfilling prophecies by Republicans who have for decades systematically worked to dismantle the Public School system, to under-fund it, and to all around cripple it whenever possible rather than fully embracing it and working to make our school systems as productive as possible :(

Whereas I never get into a battle of wits with unarmed opponents, I have now lost interest in what was otherwise a fascinating human interest story.

I have now lost interest in what was otherwise a fascinating human interest story.

Well, don't let the door hit ya. I think the real problem is that you're getting push-back against your absurd, Reefer Madness-style propaganda. Lovely but totally unverifiable anecdotes, and un-founded hysteria don't make an argument.

I'll pit my never-been-stoned brain cells against a stoner's any day.

LOL. I know a number of folks who partake who are high-functioning techies and even a lawyer. You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.

high-functioning techies and even a lawyer

I think affect has more to do with the individual than the weed. I know some real high functional people, as you mentioned, and some real 'burners' who couldn't tie their own shoes.

Of course, the high functioning set don't spend most of their day getting stoned as the burned out do. No different really than the guy that has 2-3 beers on Saturday afternoon and the extreme (always drunk) alcoholic.

Addendum: My response to this was Woodie's implied assertion that this kids' civil rights and dignity were so unimportant compared to "keeping the devil weed" away from him that he had both violated with impunity on the basis of another child's witch-hunt like accusation.

I don't recommend giving young kids access to this stuff, but at that age there's precious little you're going to do to stop it unless, as Woodie seems to believe, we throw away the book on civil rights. It's a completely out of proportion response to a non-problem.

I think affect has more to do with the individual than the weed.

There is a difference between recreational use and continuous numbing of the mind. People rightly have mentioned Carl Sagan, against whose intellect I would not wish to have been pitted even in friendly circumstances. Of course, I respect Sagan, and his contribution to human knowledge has been immeasurable.

So monster, keeping control of pot in school is a bad idea?! You've got a tough uphill hike, because most people see not just pot in school as a bad idea, but the whole pot issue the same way I do. Those who want to do it, will risk fines and jail time long into the future. Instead of just getting irritated at the majority, you'd do well to acknowledge reality.

Instead of just getting irritated at the majority, you'd do well to acknowledge reality.

• !

#1.33 - Tue Feb 21, 2012 2:08 PM PST

That was once said about civil rights too...
Then in the 1960's, and today: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/christie_blasted_for_saying_southern_black_people.php

“The fact of the matter is, I think people would have been happy to have a referendum on civil rights rather than fighting and dying in the streets in the South.”

“The fact of the matter is, I think people would have been happy to have a referendum on civil rights rather than fighting and dying in the streets in the South.”

Responses to the stupid comments by Christie:

“People were fighting and dying in the streets of the South for a reason,” Oliver said. “They were fighting and dying in the streets of the South because the majority refused to grant minorities equal rights by any method. It look legislative action to bring justice to all Americans, just as legislative action is the right way to bring marriage equality to all New Jerseyans.”

Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D) had a similar take. “Dear God, we should not be putting civil rights issues to a popular vote, to be subject to the sentiments, the passions of the day. No minority should have their rights subject to the passions and the sentiments of the majority. This is the fundamental bedrock of what our nation stands for.”

The 1965 Voting Rights act was enacted to overcome the systemic, intentional racial suppression of the black vote. It’s certainly a lack of historical understanding about how the expanding definition of who ‘We the People’ are has happened.”

And State Assemblyman John Wisniewksi (D) added: “Rosa Parks didn’t get to the front of the bus through a ballot question and Jim Crow laws weren’t repealed by public referendum.”

I will not stand to be vilified because I choose a harmless substance to deal with minor health issues and for recreation over substances which may seriously harm or kill me, period. Of course I live in Ca where the "consequences" of being pulled over for going 70 in a 55mph zone smelling like marijuana is being given a speeding ticket and allowed to go on your way most likely not even being asked by if so, if able to provide a readily available medical card - then one is always allowed to leave even if pot is on scene - the pot is left with the user by the Highway Patrol. It sucks one has to jump through the hoop of paying 100$ a year to get a medical card - but that is better than losing your freedom for the rest of your life by either being in jail or as a felon losing your right to vote thus losing the right to vote against marijuana prohibition!

Marijuana prohibition laws have always been about suppressing and oppressing one segment of industry or society or another - there have never been rational reasons for marijuana prohibition.

Even total stoners spoken of, they may have severe addictive personalities which could have otherwise brought them to heroin or crack or alcohol all of which are worlds worse in every way. Someone addicted to a substance in a way that negatively effects their life is @!$%#ed whatever the substance - while it's better for such people to be substance free, to convince a severe alcoholic who just cant seem to quit to switch over to being a total stoner can only improve the users quality of life and that of people around them. Its a great recreational tool, a harm reduction tool and a medical tool.

Correction: ...in Ca where the "consequences" of being pulled over for going 70 in a 55mph zone smelling like marijuana is being given a speeding ticket and allowed to go on your way most likely not even being asked about the smell by Highway Patrol & if so, if able to provide a readily available medical card - then one is always allowed to leave even if pot is on scene - the pot is left with the user. by the Highway Patrol.

Even here where the majority has clearly spoken, the Federal Gov continues to harrass us however it can which is proof behind their intentions of vilifying marijuana over what the majority wants - because in Ca we have the science to prove marijuana harmless, to prove marijuana medically valuable, we have the experience to prove marijuana a valuable recreational tool and we have the majority vote behind us. The only card the Fed gov can play is the "because we can" card :(

Well james, I don't see the granting of civil rights based on race, as equivalent to legalizing pot.

Even here where the majority has clearly spoken...

Didn't the majority of the CA people vote down the "legal pot" proposition??

"a valuable recreational tool"? You're kidding, right?

I'm not ignorant enough to consume alcohol, nicotine or other harmful substances and I have a right to enhance my recreation as I please. As far as I am concerned the use of marijuana is the closest to religion I come along with my natural healthy lifestyle that would seem very extreme to most people in the USA.

I voted against the last marijuana proposition, it was the beginning of the big take down of the small time marijuana grower/provider here in the state - it was written for big pharma, a Trojan horse of a sort.

Any recreational tool that has never killed a single soul despite thousands and thousands of years of human use by a good percentage of people at any given time is very very VERY valuable, yes - even George Washington knew that!

When I went to school there was a cigarette smoking area out back of the school. Yes. High school children were permitted to smoke on school grounds, with the tacit approval of the adults.

Once again, the kid is in 7th grade. 7th grade is not high school. Even so, you actually don't see a problem with a 7th grader smoking pot, cigarettes, etc? Wow

So monster, keeping control of pot in school is a bad idea?

Do you have a reading comprehension problem, or are you just prone to making ridiculous strawmen out of other people's positions in order to fool yourself into thinking you won the argument?

Either way, this discussion isn't worth having with you if you can't stick to reality, and avoid this cartoonish scaremongering. Welcome to my ignore list.