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Strip Search Of Student Ruled Unconstitutional

2009

The U.S. Supreme Court decides that a 13-year-old Arizona girl’s Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure was violated when she was subject to a full strip search at school because she was suspected of possessing prescription-strength ibuprofen against school policy. The majority opinion says in Safford Unified School District v. Redding that a school’s search for contraband must not be “excessively intrusive in light of the age and sex of the student and the nature of the infraction.”