Victory: Federal Court Agrees that North Carolina School Officials Should be Held Accountable for Strip-Searching 10-Year-Old Boy for Lost $20 Bill

September 10, 2013

CLINTON, N.C. � A federal court has agreed to hold school officials accountable for stripping a 10-year-old boy down to his underwear in an aggressive strip-search that included rimming the edge of his underwear, allegedly in an attempt to find another student�s missing $20 bill (which was later found on the cafeteria floor). The Rutherford Institute had challenged the school�s attempt to have the lawsuit against it dismissed, insisting that there is no justification for the school�s decision to so egregiously violate the fifth-grader�s Fourth Amendment rights or for the alleged failure to train school employees in how to appropriately deal with such matters.

In issuing a recommendation and a report in Cox v. Sampson County Board of Education, U.S. Magistrate Judge William Webb agreed with arguments made by Rutherford Institute attorneys that there is no justification for the school�s decision to so egregiously violate the privacy of a fifth grader because student strip searches are allowed only in the interest of school safety. Magistrate Webb also upheld claims against the defendants for battery and invasion of privacy.

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