Parents Sue After Kids Allegedly Strip Searched

By Prescott Carlson in News on Jan 9, 2009 10:35PM

An alleged case of some extremely bad judgment has resulted in a lawsuit, as the parents of two high school girls are claiming that a security guard at the Aspira Early College High School on Chicago's northwest side strip searched their daughters (along with another girl who is not a part of the lawsuit) looking for a wayward lighter. The female guard, an off duty Chicago police officer, is accused of searching under the girls' shirts with her hands, then forcing the girls to remove their pants and underwear and "squat and cough" in trying to find the contraband, which she suspected the girls of using to start a fire in the boys' bathroom.

Not only is this kind of search a highly inappropriate thing to do to minors -- especially since the parents say they were not notified -- but it's something the Illinois Code of Criminal Procedure doesn't even allow for adults arrested for a misdemeanor offense unless highly warranted, and even then there are a bunch of hoops to jump through. Even a school official was unable to even remotely condone the allegation:

"The [alleged] strip-search -- that can never, ever be justified,'' said Sonia Sanchez, chairwoman of ASPIRA of Illinois, which operates Early College High and three other Chicago charter schools.

"What compels [the officer] to go and do something like that? For a lighter?'' said Sanchez, adding that she was reacting as a mother rather than an ASPIRA official. "What impression does she have that a young girl would actually hide a lighter that way? I am appalled.''

As if it couldn't get any worse, the officer/guard was wearing her Chicago police uniform along with her holstered service revolver, which the girls' attorney told the Sun-Times that she "put her hand on the handle of the gun to intimidate the girls." While the officer no longer works at the school, she does still work for the police department, who is conducting their own investigation.