Strip Searches in Schools Traumatize Kids Over Minor Offenses
Kristen Yeckley was not happy with her 13-year-old daughter.
The principal called on a September afternoon and said the teen was in trouble for having a vape in her Ohio middle school. They searched her gym and school lockers, according to court filings.
When Yeckley got home that evening, she was upset but ready to have a conversation about what happened.
Then, Yeckley told Bloomberg Law, her daughter recounted her side of the story.
She admitted to the principal she’d held the vape for a friend but said she didn’t have it anymore. After searching both lockers and finding nothing, the principal took her to the nurse’s office and told an aide to search her, according to a complaint.
The aide told Yeckley’s daughter, whose name is not being used at her mother’s request to protect the minor’s privacy, to take off all of her clothes. She asked the aide why she had to, but her question was ignored, according to court filings.
She took off her shirt, her bra – everything but her underwear, according to court filings and Yeckley’s account to Bloomberg Law. Then the aide looked at her from numerous angles.
When she asked if she could put her bra back on, the aide told her to wait. She was left alone, nearly naked, while the aide went outside to talk to the principal, according to court filings.
They never found a vape, according to Yeckley’s complaint.
As her daughter told her the story, Yeckley became more and more horrified.
“It is something that is wildly inappropriate for a public school to be doing,” Yeckley said. “Unless it happens to you, it’s not like something you would even think about beforehand.”
