Child Strip Search Ruled Illegal

The Supreme Court ruled that a strip search of an Arizona teen by her middle-school vice principal was illegal, though they stopped short of holding the official liable for the search. Vice Principal Kerry Wilson asked Savana Redding to take off her clothes and stretch out her underwear waistband so that Wilson could make sure she wasn't hiding prescription-strength ibuprofen, which another student accused the eighth-grader of handing out. Redding, who is now in college, had her case dismissed by two courts before the Supreme Court's ruling. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented, writing that Wilson should be held financially liable for the search. "Wilson's treatment of Redding was abusive and it was not reasonable for him to believe that the law permitted it," Ginsburg said.