More Alleged Strip Searches at CPS

By Tim State in News on Jan 25, 2009 4:45PM

More layers are shedding to the floor in Chicago Public Schools. Only two weeks after the system was hit with lawsuits alleging inappropriate searches of students, two more families have filed complaints.

The lawsuits said that an 8th-grade girl and a junior male were strip-searched last year. According to the complaint, the junior was asked to drop his pants and underpants when school officials suspected he was selling drugs. The girl was pulled from a school assembly, when she was suspected of concealing a razor blade, and take to a restroom. “There, she was told to pull down her pants and take off the shirts over her bra,” James Fennerty, the lawyer representing the boy, said.

The district is still completing an investigation, and officials say a decision on discipline is pending. There was no further elaboration. [Trib]