Court blasts state’s strip-search of children
Social worker enters Christian school without cause, tells kids to remove clothing
Two children who attended a private Christian school in Wisconsin were illegally strip-searched and had their constitutional rights violated by a state social worker, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled Monday.
These kids were 8 and 9 years old, are drug dealers that young now a days?
In Michael C. v. Gresbach, the court said state worker Dana Gresbach violated the children’s Fourth Amendment rights to freedom from unreasonable search when she entered Good Hope Christian Academy in Milwaukee, Wis., had the children pulled from the classrooms and told them to remove their clothing when she suspected the parents of spanking in February 2004.
OMG, spanking. Hell, my parents used hands, belts or a bamboo switch, not overly often, but I usually ( :em93: ) deserved it and it was never excessive. With my boy, from 2 to 5 a swat with a cupped hand to the pampers got his attention. I came out alright :em95: and my son seems to be OK…for a teenager. :em98:
“The social worker performed these strip searches as a matter of routine, estimating that in perhaps one-half of the 300 or so cases she handled every year she subjected kids to a partial disrobing,” he said. “In fact, she testified that she considered it so routine that she did not bother to discuss her intentions with her supervisor, even though she spoke to her on her way to the school.”
I guess her attitude is I drove over here, I’m going to find something, after all, if I don’t find abuse…somewhere, what am I doing to earn my salary?
When Gresbach entered the school, she handed her business card to Principal Cheryl Reetz and told her she needed to see Ian and Alexis. Reetz asked the social worker if she could call the children’s parents, but Gresbach refused to allow it, saying she would contact them at a later time. The principal then asked if she could remain in the room to observe the interview, but she was denied permission to do so.
No independent advocate for the children…she could have inflicted bruises on the kids and claimed they where cause to put the kids in foster care..not that they would do that. :em02:
The social worker spent nearly 15 minutes alone in the room with each child. She searched Ian’s wrists for bruising and asked him to pull up his shirt. He complied, and she examined his back for suspicious marks. Gresbach then privately inspected Alexis, asking her to pull down her tights and lift up her dress. The worker was unable to find any sign of injury on the children’s bodies.
G-d, someone you don’t know has you pulled out of 4th/5th grade class, starts asking you ( all alone) questions, then tells you to remove clothing…wonder if these kids aren’t a little bit damaged? I’d be willing to bet more than from a spanking.
Gresbach claimed she was entitled to qualified immunity because her actions were reasonable under the Fourth Amendment; however, the court disagreed.
“We do not exempt child welfare workers from adhering to basic Fourth Amendment principles under non-exigent circumstances – to do so would be imprudent,” the court stated. “… we do not believe that requiring a child welfare caseworker to act in accordance with basic Fourth Amendment principles is an undue burden on the child welfare system, particularly when it is necessary to conduct an examination of a child’s body, which is undoubtedly ‘frightening, humiliating and intrusive’ to the child.”
Wow! A Court with some common sense in it. I was losing hope. I’m all for protecting children, but the kids have rights, the parents have rights, just because some civil servant get a state parking lot sticker for their car, doesn’t mean they get to determine how the law is applied.
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