• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

State to Investigate Strip-Search at Vocational School: Staff Followed Rules, Superintendent Says

Posted on: Friday, 27 January 2006, 15:00 CST

By Mary Beth Lane, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

Jan. 27--The Ohio Department of Education is investigating a decision by Pike County educators to strip-search teenage nursing students at a vocational school Friday. The searches were initiated after two classmates reported a theft.

An investigator with the department's Office of Professional Conduct will examine the incident and make a recommendation to an independent hearing officer, spokesman J.C. Benton said yesterday.

Parents Betty Grandstaff and Carol Knisley said this week that they were furious after their daughters reported a teacher took them and more than 20 other girls to the bathroom individually and made them drop their pants, remove their shirts, and unfasten their bras and shake them out.

The money, a credit card and a gift card that were reported missing have not been recovered.

Stephen E. Martin, superintendent of the Pike County Joint Vocational School District, yesterday defended the educators involved at the 430-student Vern Riffe Career Technology Center, about 60 miles south of Columbus. Martin said the staffers followed the studentconduct manual properly.

Martin said he expects to make public next week the results of a district investigation into the incident.

"If we need to make changes in policy or if we erred, we'll be the first to own up to it and make amends," he said. "Nothing was done to demean or harm students."

The student manual says that any school administrator has "the right and duty to conduct a reasonable search of a person and/or personal property, including clothing, lockers, or vehicle when there is reasonable suspicion that the student may have . . . possession of items believed to be stolen."

Searches are also authorized, the manual says, if it is reasonably suspected that a student has a weapon, explosive or dangerous substance, or drugs, drug paraphernalia and alcohol. Searches are also allowed for "other reasonable and justifiable causes."

The search must be witnessed by another staff member, the manual says.

"We do not believe that our policy was violated with the situation that happened," Martin said. "We don't believe that our staff did anything to violate the policy."

Ohio permits individual school districts to set their own policies for handling and disciplining students, Benton said. A handful of the state's 612 districts, for instance, permit paddling students.

mlane@dispatch.com

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

More News in this Category