Lawsuit: GA Sheriff orders "hands on body searches" for Entire High School Student Body

WOW.

This is crazy. So, the Sheriff has a list of 13 students who they wanted to pull from class and search for drugs, but only three students were there. What did the sheriff do? He places the ENTIRE school on lock down, confiscates students phones so they can't call their parents, and commences to perform hands on pat-downs of every single student in the school, including females.

One would think maybe, I don't know, call in a DOG instead of a hands on search of every single student?!?!?

Now, there is a class action lawsuit.

Worth County Sheriff Jeff Hobby went to Worth County High School on April 14 with a "target list" of 13 students that he suspected of having drugs, the lawsuit says. Only three of the students on the list were at school that day,

Hobby then had an announcement made that the school was being placed on lockdown, and students were confined to their classrooms, the hallways right outside their classrooms or the gym, and their cellphones were confiscated so they couldn't call their parents, the lawsuit says.

One student, identified in the lawsuit as K.P., was called out of her economics class into the hallway, where a deputy kicked her legs apart and told her not to look back. The deputy squeezed K.P.'s breasts and lifted the underwire of her bra through her shirt and put her hands into the pockets of K.P.'s jeans and, through the pockets, felt under K.P.'s underwear, the lawsuit says.

J.E., one of the plaintiffs who is being identified only with his initials because he is a minor, said. . . the deputy put his hands in J.E.'s back pockets and then under his shirt. He then, J.E. says, rubbed down both of the student’s legs from his thighs to his ankles, and back up between them.

"He came up under my privates and then he grabbed my testicles twice,"

If I were a parent, especially of a female student, I would be furious.

The lawsuit seeks class action status, requests a jury trial and asks for both punitive and compensatory damages from the sheriff and more than two dozen deputies.

The sheriff and his deputies had no reason to believe any of the other students had been involved in any illegal activity, the lawsuit says.

The school was on lockdown for about four hours and approximately 900 students were searched, but no illegal drugs or drug paraphernalia were found, the lawsuit says.

Completely uncalled for. In addition to be sued, the sheriff should lose his job.

Link 1: Fox
Link 2: Wapo

I agree, there definitely should have been dogs brought in. Heck, they did that once a month randomly at my highschool back in the 90s.

As for searching everyone (including females), well . . . allow them to profile (you know separate the people they're looking for) instead of blanket searching and then you can't complain. Whereas if they only pull the ones they're looking for without warrants, then they get sued for profiling.

you guys sure are permissive no problem doing a warrentless search on a school full of kids as long as you use a dog ?
Ok note to elite NO WARRANT needed .
Suspecting drugs did he ? well i do believe that is not a legal cause to search anyone without a warrent heck really its not legal on teh streets let along a school .
think they have drugs GET A WARRENT better have some proof though judges wont sing one without some .
Anway back to the post .
Now were are all the good cops to say this is wrong law or no law come on there are cops here i seen them post .
Ps 51 and princable pulled our whole class out of class and searched our bodys ( women btw )
looking for spit guns .
so Its ok if its a boy as well going by the first post ?
grabbing boys junk doesn't seam to be as big a deal as grabbing a girls .
you know I hated having my junk grabbed by the PE doc probable just as much as the girls hated having there breast graded by the PE doc .
so tell me why is it so over looked when its a boy ? I was molested no big deal its a boy ?
she gets molested all of a sudden the molester should be raped in jail tortured and killed .
Dobble standers cant stand them male or female she can do the job better pay her more he can do the job better for god sake ask him to help move the 200 # dresser it doesn't make me Superior to you just physical stronger .
if aronald was around id ask his help lol

a reply to: Liquesence

Find every official involved with this, line em up, and shoot them all.

You have guns there, right? Use them to fight tyranny.

Word to the wise... drugs do not matter nearly as much as preventing tyrants from feeling up your sons and daughters. If you cannot figure out that priority list without getting it wrong, you need to take a reality check.

I could see it now

"Pretty sure if your daughter was speeding my dad wouldn't rip her out of the car and molest her on the side of the road like you're doing to me in this hallway..... What did I do anyways? Nothing? Just lock-down protocol huh? Okay well carry on but you should know I hope you will have fun doing desk work the rest of your life........chump."


Well. Now I feel sassy........ but seriously this is unacceptable.

-Alee

a reply to: midnightstar

If the school gave permission no warrant is required.

However, not allowing students to call their parents and have them present for the search, now there's your lawsuit.

originally posted by: JIMC5499
a reply to: midnightstar

If the school gave permission no warrant is required.

However, not allowing students to call their parents and have them present for the search, now there's your lawsuit.

The school does not have the legal authority to authorize a blanket (hands-on, pat-down) search of the entire student body (for a few drugs).

a reply to: JIMC5499

The cops can search the school property when asked and with no advance notice.
The cops can't question or touch my kid without my permission unless they already arrested my kid.
They only get to do that if you allow them to.
I would sue the crap out of them, and I would win.

Hope they win the lawsuit and they shut down that sheriff's department. The department exists to prevent crime, not to staff criminals. It would reverberate nicely across the country and set a tone for other police departments to stay away from gestapo politics, regardless of how much they wish they could.

But something else caught my eye in the OP. Why is it so much worse that females were searched? Do males not have genitalia? Are females more unstable and this will traumatize them more? That era is done, the era of women's inequality, and unless we change the way we all think we'll never transition into full equality. Enough of using gender to play victim.

All people are equal and if something is traumatizing, it can be equally traumatizing regardless of gender.

originally posted by: JIMC5499
a reply to: midnightstar

If the school gave permission no warrant is required.

However, not allowing students to call their parents and have them present for the search, now there's your lawsuit.

The school can not authorize warrantless searches of individuals, only things like lockers because the lockers are school property. The individual and their person are still subject to the 4th amendment and requires a warrant if there is no probable cause. A blanket search of the entire student body is the epitome of a warrabtless search with no probable cause or exigency. This was a massive violation of the 4th Amendment here and any LEO who participated should be removed from the job.

I smell lawsuits against the sherrifs dept.and the school.And rightly so.

I remember reading about that... good I hope the families get that pos... On the flip side... I hope they are ready for the retaliation... if this sheriff thought the pat downs without parental consent was a good idea, good chance he will think intimidation is ok to.

a reply to: Irishhaf

Yeah, but that Sheriff's dept has to go. Such a clear violation of the Constitution. This is exactly what the Revolution was about. Unlawful search and seizure.

Parents need to look carefully at the paperwork they sign when they register their children for school. They may have given consent for a search of their child and not even know it. Some of the permission forms for extracurricular activities give consent to the school district for a lot of things, so do the medical treatment authorization forms. Even signing their report cards can do this especially if it states that you agree to abide by school regulations.

I'd say that the Sheriff knew what he could and could not get away with. I don't agree with what he did and I'd be pretty pissed off if my children were involved in something like that.

I have posted before about how the schools think that they own your children. About students being suspended for doing legal things off of school property on their own time. These schools have the children and / or their parents sign a "Code of Conduct" that they believe gives them control 24-7-365. Some Courts have upheld these Codes.

At the start of the next school year make sure that you read and understand anything that your child brings home for you to sign. Make sure that your children know that they shouldn't sign anything that the school gives them without you reviewing it. If there is a problem make sure that they know to contact you.

a reply to: Liquesence

As bad as this is, it's also sad that there are drugs coming into the schools in the first place. I was in high school in the early 90's. I'm sure drugs was all around me then, but I had never seen any or heard about it.

a reply to: JIMC5499

It also helps if you teach you children to not speak until you are present.
A child asking to speak to their parent will put alot of school officials in their place before you even need to be there.
"I need to speak to my parents" is what my children tell them when they think there is trouble.
No personal statements, no witness statements, only i need to speak to my parents.

a reply to: Liquesence

Yes that is close to my county here in GA we call it "worthless" county and the reason is obvious.

The county have more runs with the police around my neck of the woods that any other neighboring counties.

And for outrageousness of the situation I will be very skeptical of the so call injustice that the law sue plaintiffs are claiming.

How stupid can the LEOs be? Now the Feds are involved and who knows what other corruption will be uncovered.

The "good ole boy" network disintegrates when the Fed DOJ people start snooping around.

I hope the sheriff loses his job and his pension and gets sued into poverty. He deserves worse. Schmucks like this are why the usa has one of the lowest qualities of life in all of the first world nations.

Probable cause to search a few individuals does not constitute a search of everyone in the building. The lawyers are going to have fun with this one. Bye bye sheriff of Nottingham