Parents who have zero trust in their children will eventually pay the conquences (unless they don’t mind not being a part oftheir kids lives when they are adults).

I’m at a loss. This case is pretty clearly a failure to think rationally, an administrator that failed to understand his role in education and an administration culture that forgot job one and proceeded to focus too much information on job’s thirty through thirty-four.

Yes, safety is a key aspect of the education of a child, and it is an almost thankless job where administrators take a great deal of abuse and pressure from parents as well as other administrators and teachers for the failings of their students, but the above is an example of unnecessary DRAMA, spelled out in capital letters because it had no place in a school outside of the endeavors between the average preteen, and not in the hearts, minds and actions of the schools organization.

I went to public schools, as did my brothers. We did receive supplemental education from our parents, friends, after school programs, personal interests and eventually publicly funded colleges with scholarships. I did suffer through a few small disciplinary actions in middle school, the worst of which was what I’d later learn was called “Loan Sharking” where I’d loan kids who “forgot their lunch money” a dollar to pay for lunch or buy an extra cookie. The next day I was owed that dollar and a quarter. If they forgot it an additional day, I was paid two whole dollars for my initial investment of a dollar, on the third day. If the third day failed to get a return on my investment, I complained to a teacher, and tried to get my money back. A teacher caught me, explained what I was doing was extortion, sent me to the principal’s office, and after the principal talked to I and the student I was extorting, our parents were called and I got the grounding/punishment of my young life. It was made clear to me that what I had done was a crime, punishable by law. I was clearly told that if I did it again, my parents would pick me up at the county jail. It sunk in. I didn’t loan money anymore. The exact same solution could have been used here.

Ibuprofen “can” be dangerous. It’s for adults to administer. You bring all of the girls involved to the principal’s office, tell them that it’s wrong because the school is liable for their safety and that next time they’ll be forced by the law to call the police. The first time it’s simple ignorance that the children involved should know was wrong. Their parents have been called and urged to handle this to the degree that they’d handle a bad fight or the bringing of another piece of contraband to a school. Send the girls home for the rest of the day, see them back in class again the next day and send home a letter to all other parents explaining school policy–roughly the same thing they do for lice or as a reminder when the kid who grows up on a farm brings his pocket knife to school by accident and gets 10 days OSS.

Reenactment of a scene from the Shield or the Wire, with little girls playing the crack dealers and prostitutes isn’t the solution. The solution is also not sending all of the kids to private schools or home school for everyone. The solution is reasoned approaches to daily living that take in the education of the student as the primary goal of any non-violent disciplinary action. If there was a missing gun, a vial of cocaine or some other unlikely substance. Call the parent and call the police. Despite all tendencies to the contrary as well as several songs still sung by young children, schools are not prisons.

No child should be searched in such a manner, especially without their parents notified and nearby.

No child should be searched in such a manner, especially by adults not trained to such a search.

No child should be searched in such a manner, especially not without the child being first notified of his or her rights and options.

To frighten and humiliate a child in such a manner is both unprofessional and unethical.