US teen Savana Redding was subjected to a humiliating strip-search by school staff, after a classmate claimed that Savana was carrying "contraband tablets" (ibuprofen).
When it turned out that Savana didn't have any on her, the school neither apologised, nor returned her mother's calls.
So Mrs Redding called the cops.
Now, thanks to Savana's own tireless campaigning, the case went to the US Supreme Court, who declared the school's actions as a violation of Savana's civil rights.
Watch the video below for Savana's story, and follow us over the jump for more.
I went to a private primary school and, when I was seven, there was a theft. The police were called in, and all the pupils and staff were questioned. However, one of my classmates claimed she'd seen me with the item that had been stolen. And I was marched up to the headmistress's office and grilled (really grilled, the words 'we know you did it, Robyn' were used) by the headmistress and two policemen.
All of this was done without my mother's knowledge - in fact, it was hometime and my mother was out in the car park for the duration of the interview, wondering where the hell her daughter was.
Later, after much bureaucracy among the grown-ups that didn't involve me, the school apologised - as did the local police station - I just remember it as being really cool: I was given a tour of the police station and found out how to trace people using licence plates. For about a week afterwards I went around telling other kids that I was a detective now.
Or a spy. I can't quite remember. It didn't seem to register that something 'wrong' had happened at all.
Which is sort of my point. It can be hard to look at a pupil's civil rights violation objectively when caning was widely used until just a couple of generations ago. Savana certainly didn't enjoy what was happening, but at the time she trusted the adults who were doing it: they were adults, so it must have been the right thing to do.
Parents entrust school staff to act as in loco parentis. They need to know that trust is deserved. Although ibuprofen - contraband? Weird. The only contraband in my school was cigarettes and apples stolen from the dining hall by shoving them up your sleeves (yeah yeah, we all know you did it).
What do you make of all this?
