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Officials at David Crockett Academy in Detroit are accused of strip searching an eighth grader for a vape pen without notifying the student's parents.
A mother is suing a Detroit charter school after she says her eighth grade daughter was strip-searched without her consent over a vape pen that didn’t exist.
The lawsuit filed in Wayne County Circuit Court on Wednesday alleges the George Crockett Academy violated the 14-year-old girl’s constitutional rights when the principal authorized two female staff members to conduct the strip search without notifying the mother on April 25.
No vape pen was found because she didn’t have one, according to the lawsuit.
“It has long been said that students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse door,” the mother’s attorney, Hannah Fielstra of the Ernst Law Firm in Detroit, said in a statement. “The school had no justifiable reason to strip search an eighth-grade girl for a vape pen. It is not a weapon and did not present an imminent danger to anyone. There were no credible threats of violence. A strip search is one of the most invasive searches recognized by law and it was performed on a teenage girl during school. The circumstances of this strip search were not only humiliating, but her constitutional rights were violated. The school went too far.”
Metro Times isn’t identifying the girl or her mother to protect their privacy.
According to the suit, school officials should have been skeptical of the claims about the student. Earlier that day, another student who had a history of bullying the eighth grader told school staff that the girl had a vape pen in her underwear.
"Defendants failed to ask any follow-up questioning to corroborate the accusation with any details that would suggest that the female student with known animosity toward (the plaintiff) had any firsthand knowledge that the vape pen was in (her) underwear," the suit states.
The search took place in an office with two windows, one of which was not covered, according to the suit. The student was forced to remove her shirt and pants, lift up her bra, and fold down the top of her underwear, knowing she was on her period.
After initially claiming the strip search had not occurred, the school later said the student had volunteered to be searched, a claim that the eighth grader denied, according to the suit.
The school has a history of “performing strip-searches on minor students without parental consent,” the lawsuit states.
The suit alleges school officials violated the student’s Fourth Amendment rights and caused her mental anguish, emotional distress, humiliation, and embarrassment.
George Crockett Academy did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
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