Maintaining Order and Qualified Immunity for Schools

                Safford v. Redding Case Name Institutional affiliation
Safford v. Redding Case The school officials had received information from a student who had provided them with a pill that he had allegedly purchased from Savanna’s friend. The student complained that he felt sick after consuming the pill and this was enough for the officials to conduct a search on the girls. Additionally, there was information presented to the officials that the students had been identified as part of a rowdy group during a school dance. During the dance alcohol and cigarettes were found in the girl’s bathroom. There were also reports of a party attended by the student who claims that alcohol was served at the party. The reputation of the suspects was enough to ask for a search. It is also on the day of the search that the pill which allegedly came from Marissa was presented to the principal. Marissa was found with a pill in a wallet that she claimed was Savanna`s. Savanna also confirmed her relationship with Marissa (Stader, Greicar, Stevens, & Dowdy, 2010). This was enough to ask for a full body search, and that is why the school officials were justified in calling for a body search. However, from the information provided, there was no clear indication where the pills were being stored, so there was no need for a strip search. Here Savanna’s rights were violated since there was a reason to make the school officials think that the pills were being hidden in the underwear. After she had removed her underwear her breast were exposed at some angle and the fourth amendment comes to play. The officials claim that they saw nothing after she removed her bra but that is enough to protect her because it does not deal with what was seen or who saw it. It deals with her having to remove her clothes in the presence (Bradley, 2010). Having not found anything they called for qualified immunity which protects them from prosecution since they had reasonable cause to call for the search. They instead took a further step as Marissa did not provide them with any information...