No liability in school's strip search
Clayton officials' acts were unconstitutional, but they are shielded, judge rules. Parents respond angrily.
Bill Rankin - Staff
Tuesday, October 5, 1999
Clayton County school and police officials conducted an unconstitutional strip search of fifth-graders in October 1996, but they are shielded from liability, a federal judge has ruled.
The ruling, while a huge legal victory for the Clayton County Board of Education, puts other metro area schools on notice that similar searches conducted in the future could result in monetary damage awards.
The court's decision was condemned by parents of some of the West Clayton Elementary School students: U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes' ruling means a trial on their lawsuit will not be held.
"It's really just unbelievable," said Tewarnie Starks of College Park, whose son was among the students searched. "How can our children be violated like that and have no recourse?"
As for Judge Carnes, "I think what she did was unconstitutional, if you ask me," Starks said.
"It's outrageous," said Katrina Nettles, whose daughter was searched. "I'm just shocked. Why do we even have a justice system where your rights can be violated, especially children's, and nothing is done about it?" Nettles said she did not want to tell her daughter about the ruling, but she would. "This is going to make her feel even worse," she said.
Gary Sams, a lawyer for the Clayton County school board, said he was "very pleased" with the ruling.
"Not every wrong creates money in somebody's pocket," he said. "If the parents' frustration is they didn't get money for this, I'm sorry. Hopefully, the taxpayers' money will be used to educate children and not pay damage claims."
In her ruling, Carnes said if a bomb had been reported or if a weapon, drugs or a "very valuable stolen item" were at issue, an intrusive search of an entire class might have been justified.
But the judge ruled this search "was not reasonable under all the circumstances: meaning that the search was unconstitutional."
In April 1997, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of 11 students who said they were strip-searched in bathrooms by their teacher, Tracey Morgan, and former Clayton County police Officer Zannie Billingslea after $26 from student candy sales turned up missing. The money was never recovered.
According to the lawsuit, Billingslea, who was at school that day for a drug awareness program, dropped his pants and underwear to show boy students how to strip for the search, threatening to take them to jail if they refused. Morgan struggled with some of the girls during the strip search, the lawsuit contends, and searched two students who arrived in class after the money turned up missing.
A Clayton County police investigation criticized Billingslea for the way he handled the Oct. 31, 1996, incident, and the department issued a reprimand. Billingslea was later fired after telling The Atlanta Journal-Consti- tution he was not reprimanded.
Carnes stopped short of criticizing the teacher. Morgan, the judge said in last week's ruling, "acted out of no malevolence to her class, but instead did what she thought was the right thing to do."
The missing money was raised by a student who sold candy to help finance a class field trip to Tennessee. And this was a fifth-grade class where most students were too poor to buy their lunch, Carnes noted.
"Morgan indicated that she was concerned and wanted very badly to locate the money," Carnes wrote. " . . . The loss of $26 may not have seemed serious to an adult, but she perceived it as a serious problem for this child."
The court's ruling cleared from liability West Clayton Elementary Principal Ralph Matthews, former Assistant Principal R.G. Roberts, Billingslea and Morgan, citing the legal doctrine of qualified immunity.
The doctrine sets high hurdles before someone can demand crippling monetary damages from a civil servant trying to do a job, even when bad judgment is used.
With regard to strip searches of schoolchildren, Carnes said, there was no clear legal authority at the time alerting school and police officials that a search of an entire classroom was illegal.
The issue also involves an area of the law where courts have given deference to teachers and school administrators, choosing not to second-guess the tough disciplinary decisions they have to make every day.
In her order, Carnes said the Clayton County school board should write a better policy directing its teachers and officials on how and when to conduct searches of students.
The school board was cleared of liability because Roberts, the assistant principal, did not authorize a strip search when the classroom teacher approached her about the missing money, said Carnes.
According to pre-trial testimony, Morgan said Roberts authorized a search but did not specify the boundaries of it. Roberts testified she authorized a search but limited it to the girls' purses and the boys' pockets.
According to testimony by six students, Morgan told the class after returning from her discussion with Roberts that she was allowed to conduct a strip search. Carnes decided the students' testimony was inadmissible.
Gerry Weber, the ACLU's legal director, called this part of Carnes' ruling "disturbing."
"The judge has chosen which testimony to believe," he said. "We consider that to be the jury's role." He said the ACLU may appeal.
"The only good thing about this ruling is that the judge has now determined this kind of search is unconstitutional," Weber said. "If another school system does it again, there will be a very different result." Sams, the school board's attorney, said the board will refine its policies.
"Judge Carnes said the search was unreasonable and unconstitutional and we obviously understand her position on that," Sams said. "But this was a rookie teacher in her first year who felt strongly about her students. Had she been more mature, she wouldn't have done it, probably. I honestly do believe this was all a miscommunication."
© 1999 Cox Interactive Media
Home schooling!!!
A Clayton County police investigation criticized Billingslea for the way he handled the Oct. 31, 1996, incident, and the department issued a reprimand.
Amazing.
With regard to strip searches of schoolchildren, Carnes said, there was no clear legal authority at the time alerting school and police officials that a search of an entire classroom was illegal.
Gads -- we have an Algore clone (or should that be "cutting"?) handing down legal rulings.
Excerpt from "Transfer-the end of the beginning" by Jerry Furland (Amazon.com)
Tim thought he had done well. The bodies of Dawn and her driver/bodyguard had been flown to Washington DC where they lay in state at the capitol rotunda. POTUS and POTUS-elect had both attended the services and voiced their outrage and grief. President-elect J.D. Waites had spoken angrily of the nations loss of a powerful force for progress and decency and movingly of the personal loss to those who knew and loved Dawn best.
Even better, the next day the Domestic Terrorism Special Powers Act was blasted out of committee and on to the floor of Congress for a vote. It passed on a voice vote-by acclamation no count was necessary. ‘It was beautiful.’ True they had tinkered with the wording a little-after all they had to feel like they contributed something to the process. And in joint committee they’d parse it further but the end product was not in jeopardy. Just so long as it gave Tim a free hand.
Besides, the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States had already been gutted repeatedly by the Supreme Court during the late 1990’s. The Special Powers Act was just a little icing on the cake. Essentially, "unreasonable" search and seizure could no longer be defined. Anything the government wanted to see, do, or seize was just fine thank you.
While Thurston watched from the gallery he recalled the old saw about frogs being so dumb that they wouldn’t hop out of a pan of water if you heated it to boiling-so long as the increase in temperature was slow and steady. As Thurston had informed the President the day of the vote, "I’d say that frog’s done".
Hey Judge! You are a Complete Idiot. Please do us a favor and either retire or have a Heart Attack. Or better yet, why don't you let your bailiff strip search your 10 year old granddaughter! See how you like that.
According to the lawsuit, Billingslea, who was at school that day for a drug awareness program, dropped his pants and
underwear to show boy students how to strip for the search, threatening to take them to jail if they refused.
This guy definitely has a problem.
This is one case that definitely should be appealed - up to the USSC, if necessary.
Only a pervert would strip search a kid.
With the possible exception of a time-crucial, life threatening situation.
Hey wheezer, turn off that Bold....huh?
Thanks
This is pedophilia. No normal adult wants to humiliate a child this way.
Carnes said, there was no clear legal authority at the time alerting school and police officials that a search of an entire classroom was illegal.
Probably because the retards that public schools give teaching jobs to haven't ever read the Constitution in their miseducation. What part of "free from unlawful search and seizure" is too complicated for that teacher and that idiot policeman to understand?
You are correct.
bump
The doctrine sets high hurdles before someone can demand crippling monetary damages from a civil servant trying to do a job, even when bad judgment is used.
"High hurdles?" What, in law, could possibly be higher than the Constitution?
Strip-searching children for 26 bucks is very, very sick. The school administration should have their pictures posted on sex-offender sites. If they want them taken off, well, tough - there are "high hurdles" for such a thing.
I agree. There should be criminal charges or else ass whuppings for all adults involved.
One more example of why government-controlled schools must be done away with.
Ed in NJ
Pedophilia? Not quite! Child abuse, but hardly child love. Public schools are rotten to the core anyone who sends their kids to a public school is endangering them.
With regard to strip searches of schoolchildren, Carnes said, there was no clear legal authority at the time alerting school and police officials that a search of an entire classroom was illegal.
She can't even speak clintoneese correctly.
It's supposed to be controlling legal authority.
Every person involved in the decision and implementation of strip searching those children should themselves be strip searched.
Funny how the cop was fired for being misquoted in the paper (ya, right) about his already administered punishment rather than for his real crime.
I agree with that.
It is pedophilia! If they had done that to my kids they would want to be placed in prison to get protection from me!
On these issues the ACLU might well not be the best folks to turn to..they have an agenda "for the children" ...
On these issues the ACLU might well not be the best folks to turn to..they have an agenda "for the children" ...
No normal adult...
Exactly the problem...and they're teaching our children.
I agree that I would have gone to court over a strip search, but it is not pedophilia. I think that pedo comes from the Greek for child and philia comes from the Greek word for love, hence pedophilia = child love. This is more akin to child hate, nothing to do with love of or making love to a child.
You can't be serious? Pedophilia is the label we put on the perverts that molest children. It has nothing to do with love regardless of what the Greeks have to say.
It is a matter of semantics. It is just an improper use of the word. Of course a pedophile is a child abuser, but all child abusers are not pedophiles. Understand?
Understand this. If you strip children nakid so that you can examine them without valid reason then that is molestation and child abuse and yes, pedophilia and perverted.
Pedophilia? Not quite! Child abuse, but hardly child love.
You're scaring me, girl. Do you think rape is a proposal of marriage?
Hitting a kid too hard is child abuse. Forcing a child to strip, is pedophilia.
If the old man next door did it we wouldn't be having this discussion. We would all agree on what that was. Since lots of people in our society have an unconditional reverence for authority they refuse the see the same crime when it is committed under the color of authority. And that folks is the problem we all call sheeple.
It's a bit of semantic wrangling, and normally I'd be supporting Eva: pedophilia implies some sort of sexual attraction to the child, and I'm not certain that the female teacher above could be so accused. Outrageous abuse of authority, yes, pedophilia, at least there's room for doubt.
But the male pulling his pants and underpants down in front of a group of boys he was about to do the same to? Yeesh! If that isn't pedophilia I'd be pretty surprised.
I don't think a child of mine would be attending this school one more nanosecond...
For them to do this in these times, when people sue for "thought crimes" is stunning. Most of us feel cautious when we smile at strange baby in the supermarket. Can you imagine being so cocky as to tell strangers' kids to remove their clothes?
These kids are probably watching X-rated HBO movies all night at home. One kid could easily make up a horrible story. Why would the teacher risk that? Must have been a STRONG motivation.
And it is not as if this "missing money" problem is something new. This should just be routine (and part of the lesson is to be responsible for your own stuff.)
An evil wind is blowing when a teacher is this arrogant. And now the courts have validated the act. Evil knows its own.
Enough with the semantics! We could say similar things about necrophilia. Is it 'love', or 'abuse'? Just like with a little kid, neither one has much of a chance of resisting. This story is about what the hell is going on in public schools, and why the hell are there not CRIMINAL charges in this case! This is child abuse, by a pedophile or not, but this no liability is crap!
pedophilia implies some sort of sexual attraction to the child
If it wasn't sexual the kids would not have had to remove their cloths. It's pretty simple really. You do not search children by making them remove their cloths. When we went to school we were never searched in that manner. I don't get your position. The male teacher exposes himself and that is pedophilia yet forcing kids to expose themselves is not. That seems a bit odd to me. If I come over and force your kids to expose themselves to me then I just went about something the wrong way but if I pull my pants down then I'm a pedophile?
"[Morgan] acted out of no malevolence to her class, but instead did what she thought was the right thing to do."
America 2000: It doesn't matter what's right or wrong, only what we feel. (This is why we can kill thousands in Yugoslavia in a half-cocked wag-the-dog war and simply wash our hands when it turns out we were wrong- after all, our intentions were good.)
The loss of $26 may not have seemed serious to an adult, but she perceived it as a serious problem for this child."
Then pay the $26 yourself, don't use it as an excuse to break the law and violate these kids.
All them kids should get together and make accusations of molestation - that will put a halt to this kind of sh*t!
It WAS molestation, basically! I really think there should be criminal charges.
bttt
bump
You still don't get it. A pedophile is someone who prefers a child as as sexual partner just like a homosexual prefers a member of his or her own sex. I doubt that this teacher prefers sex with a child. I do think that a strip search might be construed as sexual abuse, but the perpetrator would not necessarily be a pedophile.
The search WAS sexual.
Sorry, posted too soon.
The search WAS sexual. That is the whold point. There is no earthly reason to strip those kids, in fact there is every reason not to. These two were motivated by urges they chose not to control - sexual urges.
bump
Remember, your U.S. Department of Education was at the Gay Rights fund-raiser this weekend in California. Our tax dollars at work!
do i hear "no controlling legal authority" again????
I hear it too.
morning bump
Donna, the search was sexual for the kids, not the adults. By your standards the teacher and the officer would also be termed homosexuals, since they each stripped kids of their own sex. Like I said, it a matter of semantics.
I have probably known lots of child abusers, but only one pedophile that I can think of, she was a married lesbian who sexually tormented her own daughters (even that does not exactly fit the term pedophile).
Donna, the search was sexual for the kids, not the adults. By your standards the teacher and the officer would also be termed homosexuals, since they each stripped kids of their own sex. Like I said, it a matter of semantics.
I have probably known lots of child abusers, but only one pedophile that I can think of, she was a married lesbian who sexually tormented her own daughters (even that does not exactly fit the term pedophile).
What kind of drugs are you on? How do you know it was nonsexual for the adults? You make that assertion, but there is every indication otherwise. What if the teacher took the money as an excuse for the strip search? These are sick, sick people. What kind of sicko strips a bunch of kids over $26?
A pedophile is a child molester, and the woman you describe in your own words sexually molested her daughters. Unless you used the wrong words, she is a pedophile and belongs where all pedophiles belong: six feet under.
Donna, the search was sexual for the kids, not the adults.
That's what Clinton said about Monica.
The reason that I said that the woman may not have been a true pedophile was that she preferred adult partners and we suspect that she sexually tormented her three daughters to entertain her husband. This was a very sick woman with many serious psychosis. We came into contact with her because she was stalking my mother.
Public schools are rotten to the core anyone who sends their kids to a public school is endangering them.
Having Home Schooled for eleven years I have to agree with you. Public schools have turned into a virtual cesspool.
does any one know if U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes has recently been tested for drugs? Can federally appointed judges be disqualified for not performing duties sober?
Sometimes I think that vigilante justice might need to come back. My granddad remembered lynchings in the early 1900's. When growing up I remember hearing stories of a school teacher that got a student pregnant being castrated by her brothers. I don't know if she consented or not, she was only about 13 or 14 and he was at least twice her age. They were at least kind enough to knock him out before hand. The 'ol country doctor we had bandaged him up and later commented "I couldn't have done a better job myself." My aunt was his office nurse and told that story on several occasions.
Home schooling is the best way to prevent this garbage. There is no problem with perverted authority figures, no problems with lack of recourse for grievances, and NO "strip searches".
Of course, my children are missing out on the social aspects of the public school system (getting beat up at recess, unquestioning obedience to authority figures, following the crowd, etc.)
Of course, my children are missing out on the social aspects of the public school system
And my personal favorites: Tattoos, pierced tongues and homosexual recruitment.
Ditto!
Not only that I'd use tmeporary insanity as my defense. They'd next see a counter suit that would make their eyes bulge out of their heads as well as unwanted publicity. Yup, then I'd behave like a wibble and shriek just like they do.
The social-skills nonsense has to be the criticism I hear most of all. My children relate well with other children of all ages, as well as with adults. They have plenty of friends - though they tend to be "leaders" rather than "followers".
The caricature of a withdrawn, backward homeschooler lacking in social skills and unable to make it in the real world is a myth. The child who has no social skills, no self-motivation, no self-esteem, and no respect whatsoever for anyone outside of his limited peer group is a product of the public school system.
I'm glad my kids have missed this opportunity for social interaction.
I read an article once that said "teenager" was a new invention of the 20th century. The generation gap never existed prior to that.
I've also been thinking about how kids have been raised in all of human history. I mean, farm kids weren't sorted out and grouped up by age. They were busy working, not socializing.
Aren't children more well rounded by being exposed to people of various ages in natural family and community groups? (When all the 16-year-olds get together, they all have just one thing on their minds - trouble.) Mixing with a varity of ages is what happenes to all kids once they are out of school.
I think in the record of human history, most kids have been raised your way, and they were better human beings for it.
Exactly. Where else but in the public school system do we see people mocking and teasing others over an age difference of as little as one year? They're not like that when they go in, and they need to unlearn it pretty quickly once they get out into the real world.
bttt
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