Strip search update
Students tell of strip search
May 15, 2007
Reba Curley said her son was humiliated and embarrassed because he was seen undressed by other students and she was infuriated that her son was touched, while undressed, by a female administrator.
The junior high principal here has been suspended without pay after she called four seventh-grade boys into her office and instructed them to strip to their underclothes for a search, apparently for contraband.
Verna Ivey, who was hired as junior high principal last July, was suspended with pay after the May 2 incident and without pay for the rest of the school year beginning yesterday, Superintendent of Schools Gary Scott said.
Larry Ketcham will serve as principal for the high school and the junior high until school ends, Scott said.
Here is what happened, according to students involved, who spoke with their parents’ consent, their parents and a school staff member who was called in by Ivey to witness the incident:
The four boys, including T.J. Curley and Darrin Swank, were seen off campus, on a wooded hill near the school, during the lunch hour on May 2. When the boys returned to campus, they were met by Ivey, who sent them to her office.
Ivey was in the office with the boys for a few minutes before she called in Kim Rogers, school receptionist, Rogers said. Ivey read the boys a disciplinary statement from the student handbook about the consequences of leaving the closed campus.
The boys were seated at a table and Ivey took a chair away from and at one end of the table. She individually called the boys up and had them remove their clothing, down to their underwear, one item at a time, Rogers said.
“She said take ‘em off and I was like ‘What for?’ ” T.J. Curley said.
“She didn’t say anything about drugs or anything.”
Curley said Ivey patted him around the waistband both before and after he removed his pants.
Curley said he and the others were instructed to put their thumbs in the waist bands of their trunks and jump up and down.
After the searches, Rogers said, each boy was allowed to dress and sit down.
The searches were done in front of a window in Ivey’s office, which has a view through the administrative offices and into the main hall of the school. The building houses both the high school and junior high.
The boys said other students and staff were able to see them in stages of undress.
After the searches – in which no contraband but one wood tick was found – Ivey spoke to the boys and instructed Rogers to write them passes to return to class.
Rogers said she was told nothing about the reason for the search. Because a wood tick was found early on, and “just the manner in which she was searching them,” Rogers said, she thought maybe it was a search for ticks.
Scott, the superintendent, said the searches were not within district policy. The policy on student searches gives school authorities permission to search students and their possessions when there is “reasonable ground for suspecting that the search will produce evidence” the student has violated the law or student conduct codes.
“The search itself must be conducted in a manner which is reasonably related to its objectives and not excessively intrusive in light of the age and sex of the student and the nature of the infraction,” the policy states.
The searches were inappropriate, done without good cause and without parental permission, Scott said. If there were reason for a search, it should be by an adult of the same sex, he said.
Parents and students both have a right to be told why searches are being conducted and to reject being searched, he said. If contraband is suspected, Scott said, it would be reasonable to call the police.
Scott said in his career as an educator, he has asked students to empty their pockets.
“You don’t pat people down, you don’t search people,” he said.
BIA Chief of Police John Grinsell said the police department is investigating the incident to determine if any criminal conduct occurred.
“I think we have a responsibility to investigate it,” Grinsell said.
The school has cooperated with the police investigation, turning over all information related to the incident, and officers will do more follow-up in their independent investigation, Grinsell said. The department has a school resource officer and he is in the school daily, Grinsell said.
The results of the investigation will be given to authorities to determine if tribal and/or federal prosecution or other action is appropriate, Grinsell said.
Parents upset
Reba Curley, T.J’s mother, and Duane and Betsy Swank, Darrin’s parents, said they are upset about the searches. Both boys took days off school after the incident. The parents said their boys have not been in serious trouble at school in the past.
Duane Swank said Ivey called him about having his son in her office because he was seen off school property. She did not tell him about the search, he said.
Betsy Swank learned of the search when her older son called from the high school and told her to come down because something happened and Darrin was in his “skivvies” in the principal’s office.
“These boys are at their puberty stage,” she said. “Their privacy is really important to them.”
T.J. told his mother about the incident after school. Reba Curley said her son was humiliated and embarrassed because he was seen undressed by other students and she was infuriated that her son was touched, while undressed, by a female administrator.
“I told him this is your personal boundary and nobody crosses it,” Curley said and moved her hands in a circle around herself.
The parents said they are going to attend Tuesday’s school board meeting and see if further action is taken. They are exploring all of their options, they said, including legal action.
“I know she’s been suspended for the rest of the year, but that’s kind of letting her off without paying for what she did to them, mentally and physically,” Betsy Swank said.
Duane Swank said he wants the suspension and the incident put on Ivey’s record.
“What if another school hires her?” he said.
He also wants the school board to take responsibility.
“They’re the ones responsible for her even being there,” he said.
