Strip Searches in Schools Traumatize Kids Over Minor Offenses

Kristen Yeckley was not happy with her 13-year-old daughter.

The principal called on a September afternoon and said the teen was in trouble for having a vape in her Ohio middle school. They searched her gym and school lockers, according to court filings.

When Yeckley got home that evening, she was upset but ready to have a conversation about what happened.

Then, Yeckley told Bloomberg Law, her daughter recounted her side of the story.

She admitted to the principal she’d held the vape for a friend but said she didn’t have it anymore. After searching both lockers and finding nothing, the principal took her to the nurse’s office and told an aide to search her, according to a complaint.

The aide told Yeckley’s daughter, whose name is not being used at her mother’s request to protect the minor’s privacy, to take off all of her clothes. She asked the aide why she had to, but her question was ignored, according to court filings.

She took off her shirt, her bra – everything but her underwear, according to court filings and Yeckley’s account to Bloomberg Law. Then the aide looked at her from numerous angles.

When she asked if she could put her bra back on, the aide told her to wait. She was left alone, nearly naked, while the aide went outside to talk to the principal, according to court filings.

They never found a vape, according to Yeckley’s complaint.

As her daughter told her the story, Yeckley became more and more horrified.

“It is something that is wildly inappropriate for a public school to be doing,” Yeckley said. “Unless it happens to you, it’s not like something you would even think about beforehand.”

Across the country children and teenagers say they are being strip searched at school by administrators and staff – often for vape pens and minor offenses, a Bloomberg Law investigation found. At least 40 federal civil rights lawsuits since 2017 claim children were strip searched at school.

The cases are almost certainly an undercount. News reports during the same time period detail about a dozen more instances where families say their kids were strip searched. In other online threads parents and students seek guidance after strip searches.

Most of the lawsuits alleged the searches were conducted by school staff, including administrators, nurses, teachers, guidance counselors, and security personnel. Seven cases involved school police officers.

The majority of the searches were for either physical items such as vape pens and drugs or searching a student’s body for signs of abuse or self harm. Bloomberg Law counted cases that described the removal of clothing or exposure of areas of the body that are typically covered.

In the age of school shootings, the stakes are high for administrators to make sure kids are safe. But in only four of the 40 cases did officials say they were searching for guns, and none were found.

“We’re not talking about weapons here,” said Yeckley of her daughter’s search. “Even if she had a vape, even if they found one, that does not, in my opinion, constitute a strip search.”

Yeckley filed suit in 2022 shortly after the incident and settled with the district for around $160,000. A representative for the district, Willoughby-Eastlake City Schools outside of Cleveland, said it does not comment on legal cases.

The cases examined by Bloomberg Law describe a range of alleged scenarios, from school staff telling a student to remove clothes in front of them, to touching the student’s bra or body.

Fifteen of the 40 cases involved searches by or in the presence of an adult of a different gender than the student, the complaints claim. Thirteen of the cases involved a student with a disability.

Among the allegations:

• In Ohio, a 7-year-old girl claims she was strip searched after she pocketed $3 while getting change for a teacher. An administrator asked her to remove her leggings and then brought her to the bathroom where she was told to remove her underwear, according to her lawsuit. She was suspended for one day. The case settled.
• A Colorado high school security officer demanded a student with autism undress with another student in the room, the student’s family claims in a civil rights suit. They ordered him to pull down his pants and then his underwear in search of a vape. The case ended in a stipulated dismissal, which can occur after a settlement. Lawyers for the student did not respond to questions about whether the parties settled.
• After finding marijuana in an eighth-grade girl’s book bag, an Alabama principal ordered her to strip naked, spread her legs and lift her breasts, according to her lawsuit. The girl, who had special needs, was menstruating at the time. The principal repeated the search a second time. The case settled.
• In Ohio and Missouri, lawsuits claim school nurses performed vaginal exams on a 5-year-old and an elementary schooler while searching for signs of abuse. The case in Ohio is ongoing, and the case in Missouri settled.

In each of the cases mentioned above, the school systems denied the circumstances or the nature of the search in answers to the plaintiffs’ complaints.

Court dockets often do not detail how a case was resolved, and settlements are often confidential. A Bloomberg Law analysis found that at least 11 of the 40 cases settled.

“Schools should not be strip searching children at all,” said Jessica Feierman, an attorney at the Juvenile Law Center, a nonprofit, public interest law firm for children. “School should be a place where students feel safe.”

In 1985, the US Supreme Court said schools can search students when the “measures adopted are reasonably related to the objectives of the search, and not excessively intrusive.” That case involved the search of a purse of a student found smoking in a school bathroom, and the Supreme Court used the same standard to rule a strip search of a student was unreasonable in a 2009 case.

Still, whether a search crosses the line is up for interpretation.

In both cases the court ruled that schools are a place where the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, applies less, said Stevie Pactor, an American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana attorney who represented students in three different cases.

The 40 cases show a power imbalance when an adult in a position of authority demands a child remove clothing or expose themselves.

The cases examined by Bloomberg Law show a pattern of schools not getting parents’ permission before strip searching their children. In five, the children were told no when they asked to talk to a parent.

Kids are taught to be suspicious of adults who want them to take off their clothes, said Josh Gupta-Kagan, director and founder of the Family Defense Clinic at Columbia Law School.

“Even 7-year-olds have a strong sense of their bodily integrity,” he said.

Impact on Kids

At Memorial Park Middle School in neighboring Indiana, 13-year-old Stephanie was also suspected of having a vape. Bloomberg Law used a pseudonym at her mother’s request to protect the minor’s privacy.

She turned it over to the principal and asked to call her mom, but the principal said no, according to her complaint and the principal’s affidavit in a federal lawsuit.

Girls tend to hide things in their bra, and she needed to be searched, a school police officer told her, according to Stephanie’s deposition.

With the door open, she lifted up Stephanie’s shirt and bra, exposing her breasts in front of the male principal, Stephanie said. Fort Wayne Community Schools denies the allegation. In the principal’s affidavit he said none of Stephanie’s intimate parts were exposed during the search, which he called a “pat-down.”

“I could just feel eyes on me,” she said in an interview with Bloomberg Law. “I never forgot that feeling of just standing there almost disgusted with myself.”

In a statement, Fort Wayne Community Schools said they do not strip search students for any reason and didn’t strip search Stephanie.

“The case referenced was dismissed with prejudice because the student’s attorney did not respond to our motion for summary judgment,” a spokesperson wrote.

Jessica Farlow, Stephanie’s mother, said the case lapsed after a disagreement with her attorney over fees.

“I remember her looking at me and telling me, ‘I can’t believe the first dude to see my boobs was my principal,’” Farlow said.

Studies show young people are often self-conscious about their bodies, and strip searches can have the same psychological results as sexual abuse or rape. A 1991 study found that strip searches have a greater effect on children than adults and can cause long-term psychological harm.

“It seemed like this broke her,” Farlow said. “All of those people were supposed to keep her safe, and they failed her.”

The American Bar Association says strip searches can be overused, resulting in long-term negative consequences such as anxiety, depression, and phobias.

Complaints filed in the 40 cases describe kids and families who were traumatized by the searches. Some never returned to their schools.

“Strip searches are incredibly intrusive,” said Feierman, of the Juvenile Law Center. “There’s a cost benefit analysis that’s just completely out of whack when we’re causing harm to young people in the name of protecting them.”

Minors have described strip searches as humiliating, demeaning and dehumanizing, studies show. One 2006 study said that students who have been strip searched have done worse in school and often transfer or drop out.

Many of the studies are old, from the 1990s and early 2000s. Feierman says that’s because the research is not disputed.

“I don’t think that there’s any research that demonstrates that it’s okay to strip search children that we know of,” she said.

The impact of the strip search followed Stephanie into high school, where she didn’t get involved in as many clubs or continue with show choir.

She is still reminded of the ordeal by small sounds: heels on a hard floor, a door unlocking, or someone calling her name.

“I just immediately go back to that moment, and it just drives me crazy,” she said.

‘How Could They Even Do This?’

When the principal pulled Yeckley’s daughter out of class and questioned her about the vape and its location, there was confusion around how to search her.

The head nurse was not at the school at the time, so the aide called her to ask how to locate the vape. The nurse said to “body search” the student, according to the lawsuit.

Later the head nurse said she would not have conducted a strip search, and by “body search” she meant asking the student to hold her clothes tight to her skin to see if an object became visible, according to the complaint.

After the incident, Yeckley told Bloomberg Law she met with the superintendent, principal, and nurse, who apologized and confirmed the district had no policy addressing strip searches.

There is still no policy, and a representative for the school did not respond to questions about why one hasn’t been created.

“How could they even do this?” Yeckley said. “I actually thought it was illegal.”

But it’s not.

In 2009 the Supreme Court ruled that the indignity of a strip search does not necessarily outlaw it. But the search does have to be reasonable.

Savana Redding, 13, was strip searched at her school in Arizona on suspicion she possessed prescription ibuprofen. Her family filed a lawsuit, alleging the search violated her Fourth Amendment rights.

The Supreme Court sided 8-1 with Redding, ruling that the search was unreasonable. The school administrator who conducted the search didn’t have a reason to believe the ibuprofen presented a danger, and he didn’t have a reason to believe the pills were in her underwear, the court ruled. Justice Clarence Thomas was the only dissenting vote.

“The content of the suspicion failed to match the degree of intrusion,” Justice David Souter wrote for the majority.

But the court also ruled school officials were entitled to qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that shields government officials from liability in civil lawsuits. Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented from this part of the opinion.

Ginsburg, the sole female justice at the time, wrote in her dissent that the official’s “treatment of Redding was abusive and it was not reasonable for him to believe that the law permitted it.”

The decision created a gray area, Gupta-Kagan said. “It was a good precedent in terms of limiting when schools can search children’s bodies, but it was not as strong as it could’ve, and I believe should have been.”

At least 10 states have laws that prohibit or limit strip searching in schools, according to an examination of state statutes by Bloomberg Law. While some states outright ban the practice, others make exceptions for law enforcement or searching for signs of abuse.

Washington, New Jersey, South Carolina, Hawaii, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin explicitly forbid strip searching kids at school. In California, school employees cannot remove a student’s clothes for a search. Many states address searches of lockers and personal property but do not mention the permissibility of strip searches.

Ohio leaves the creation of search policies to local boards of education.

In Yeckley’s Ohio county, the school district had a search and seizure policy, but it didn’t address strip searches.

Yeckley’s daughter was surprised by her mom’s reaction to the strip search and didn’t yet realize that what happened wasn’t okay.

“You never let anybody do that,” she said she told her daughter. “If they ever ask you to do anything ever again, you call me first, and you tell them no, and you tell them to call me.”

State-Level Action

Last year Wisconsin’s legislature banned school officials from strip searching kids down to their underwear after a district superintendent demanded six teenage girls do so in search of vapes. The law still allows law enforcement officials to search kids.

“I felt that this was totally an inappropriate level of power that was subjected upon these minors,” said state Rep. David Steffen (R), one of the co-sponsors who introduced the bill. “This was one of those obvious misses in our state law.”

In Indiana, legislators have taken notice of Bloomberg Law’s findings.

Six of the 40 cases were filed in Indiana, more than any other state.

Indiana state Sen. Fady Qaddoura (D) said he wants to address the issue when the state legislature begins its regular session in January. He hopes to ban strip searching except for in extreme, clearly defined circumstances.

“We can balance student privacy with student safety in a dignified and respectful way without violating the constitutional rights of students,” Qaddoura said.

In two of the six Indiana cases, teenagers said they were searched at Jay County Junior-Senior High School in Portland.

One complaint said the dean of students touched the back of a sophomore girl’s bra while he searched for a vape. Her breasts were alleged to have been exposed while she claimed she was forced to shake out her bra in front of him. He searched her three months later looking for a vape, and again the student’s breasts were exposed in front of him and a school nurse, according to the complaint. He never found the vape. The case was voluntarily dismissed by the plaintiff. In court documents, the dean denied ever touching her and said her breasts were never exposed.

The other case against two of the same school employees alleged a nurse searched a 13-year-old girl. The school received a tip that the student had a gun. In the lawsuit, the girl’s father claimed the dean told them the tip came from a student with a history of making false reports, a claim the dean denied.

Instead of using a metal detector wand or waiting for a police officer to arrive, the nurse forced her to lift up her shirt and pull her bra away from her body in the presence of the dean.

“I think what that has a tendency to show is that they didn’t actually have a legitimate concern that there was a weapon,” said Pactor, the ACLU attorney who represented the students in both cases.

In court documents the dean and nurse said the search was reasonable, and the student was never asked to lift her shirt or show skin. The case recently settled.

The superintendent said in a statement that the administrator who conducted the searches was placed on administrative leave during an independent legal review. After the review, the superintendent said he concluded the students’ Fourth Amendment rights, which protect against unreasonable searches and seizures, were not violated, and the employees who conducted the searches didn’t ask the students to expose their breasts or bras. The administrator would return to work, and staff would receive training on student searches, the statement said.

If a male teacher had a female search a girl, he should have left the room, Indiana state Rep. Ed DeLaney (D) said.

“I’m frankly shocked that this could ever happen because I think it shows a complete lack of thought on the part of some school officials,” he said.

Lasting Effects

The American Bar Association’s stance is that strip searching a minor is almost never appropriate. The organization created a recommended policy on the issue in 2020.

The policy applies to schools, juvenile detention facilities, child welfare agencies, immigration detention, correctional institutions, and law enforcement agencies.

Riya Saha Shah, a co-chair of the ABA Children’s Rights Litigation Committee and CEO of the Juvenile Law Center, saw how laws varied widely on the state and local levels. “We thought an ABA policy might be an effective way at advocating for increased protections for young people in a variety of contexts,” she said.

The final policy urged federal and state governments to adopt laws that prohibit strip searches of children except when there is reasonable suspicion to believe the child has a weapon. Searches should be conducted after all other less-intrusive methods have been exhausted.

“Step one should be having a conversation,” Feierman said. “We should be thinking about ways to do that that don’t cause additional harm.”

In instances in which abuse is suspected, Shah and Feierman said strip searching could cause more harm to a potentially vulnerable child.

In 12 of the 40 cases in Bloomberg Law’s data, children were searched at school for signs of abuse. But Shah said school employees are mandatory reporters, which means they must report suspected abuse to authorities – not search for signs of abuse themselves.

“One doesn’t need to do an investigation that requires finding a bruise in order to report suspected child abuse,” Shah said.

“Schools should have a blanket rule that they do not conduct strip searches,” said Feierman.

In the four years following Stephanie’s strip search, Farlow watched her daughter go from being a happy, “singing fairy child,” to one who threw up most days before going to school. A good student with no behavioral problems became distrustful of authority. She was frequently late to school. Her grades suffered.

Now a senior in high school deciding between colleges, Stephanie wants to pursue a career as a school counselor to be a resource for kids.

But the search is still on her mind.

“I think about it every single day.”

Methodology

The 40 cases in this article are drawn from more than 240,000 civil rights complaints filed in federal district court from Jan. 1, 2017, to Dec. 31, 2024. The reporting team used large language models to generate summaries of the complaints and then to categorize details about them. The categorizations allowed the reporting team to flag cases that potentially involved children and schools.

In total, 28,787 cases were flagged as potentially involving children or schools. The reporting team then conducted word searches over the text, followed by another LLM run of questions to identify potential instances of strip-searching in schools. The reporters manually verified the details alleged in each case and built a database of strip search cases. The language used in litigation can vary from case-to-case and the term “strip search” may not explicitly be stated. A lawsuit was considered to involve a strip search if the complaint described the removal of clothing or exposure of areas of the body that are typically covered.