[PAA-Discuss] How Schools Are Preparing Pupils For A Police State
Rick _lux
lux_88 at hotmail.com
Thu Oct 16 14:21:24 EDT 2008
SCHOOLS
PREPARE PUPILS TO ACCEPT A POLICE STATE
by Beverly Eakman
April 8, 2008
NewsWithViews.com
Somehow
I missed this news item, and maybe you did, too. Then again, perhaps
the mainstream media took pains to keep this one quiet, hoping the
fire wouldn't hit the fan.
It
seems that in 2003 an honor student in Arizona at Safford Middle School
named Savana Redding, an eighth-grader with no disciplinary record,
was strip-searched — and I mean really strip-searched, down
to the crotch of her panties — in pursuit of nonprescription
ibuprofen tablets. [See the end of this article for links
to news stories.] Ibuprofen is the equivalent of the pain-relieving
ingredient in Advil, Motrin, etc…, and never known to provide
a "high" or to be addictive. Two such pills (the typical
dosage) supposedly equal "prescription strength" —
providing school authorities just enough wiggle room to go to extremes.
Today,
under the absurd "no tolerance" drug policies in schools,
no type of medication, from aspirin to Alka-Seltzer and Pepto-Bismol,
is allowed unless it is given to the school nurse by a parent, and
then dispensed by the nurse to the student. In other words, it is
easier for a child to secure an abortion referral from a K-12 educational
facility than it is to relieve a headache. Like the aggravations suffered
by law-abiding passengers at airports in the name of terrorism, schoolchildren
are deemed automatically guilty until proven innocent, and "probable
cause" does not apply.
The
strip-search story might have ended there, but for the fact that Savana's
case went to court (Redding v. Safford Unified School District)
and two of the three-judge panel on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
in Los Angeles (the same "circus court" that ruled against
California homeschoolers in March) decided that the degrading search
did not violate the girl's Fourth
Amendment rights — even though Savana's mother was not
alerted, the pupil had a stellar record and the U.S. Supreme Court
had already held that searching any student's person is constitutional
only if "justified at its inception" and "reasonably
related in scope to the circumstances which justified the interference…."
All
the school had in this case was a flimsy allegation from another girl
caught with such pills in her pocket (not her panties). Apparently,
she was anxious to provide a source for the medication that did not
include her buying them or bringing them from home. So, she offered
another girl's name, Savana Redding.
At
stake now is a decision by the full court as to whether to overturn
this ridiculous decision.
Given
this court's decade-long history of bizarre rulings, I wonder
how many of the zealous judges were busy getting "high with
a little help from their friends" during the flower-child era
on 1960's-era college campuses. Well, never mind. In an age
when America's top officials are caught up in prostitution rings
(New York Governor Eliot Spitzer); adulterous affairs (New York Governor
David A. Paterson, former President Bill Clinton); and illegal intoxicants
(D.C. Mayor and Councilman-for-life Marion Barry); etc., some are
clearly "more equal than others."
Savana
indicated she was not merely humiliated, but downright "scared"
to object, because she feared worse if she didn't
comply. She said she kept her head down so they wouldn't
see her cry.
But
here's the clincher: The principal said he "didn't
think the strip search was a big deal"—because "they
didn't find anything."
As
most of us are aware since Columbine, kids with histories of troublemaking,
outlandish dress, terrible classroom behavior and all sorts of offenses
grace our nation's classrooms, to the detriment of average students.
Good parents hope that despite the education establishment's
ongoing tolerance of culture rot, anti-religion bias, and acquiescence
on everything from gay clubs to "green" hysteria, their
children will actually learn something.
What
they are learning, however, is to accept and even endorse a police
state. When individuals feel they must display their private parts
for fear of incurring the wrath of government officials (including
school administrators), a police state is already in the offing.
Schools
disseminate intimate questionnaires with the expectation that pupils
will divulge disparaging tidbits about their relatives. Some schools,
as happened in Pennsylvania, give sixth-grade girls pro-forma genital
exams in an effort to drum up "evidence" of pervasive
sexual abuse by parents.
Whereas
schools used to discourage "tattling," today they encourage
students to report on each other, even while denigrating the individual
in favor of the collective. Surreptitious identification methods ensure
that youngsters' opinions are tracked and monitored over time
for political correctness, then linked with other potentially damaging
family information, should an occasion arise down the road when it
becomes "necessary" to demean a troublesome individual
once he or she reaches adulthood.
Advertisement
All
this has been going on for some 25 years — so long that teachers,
principals and superintendents under the age of 50 have little or
no memory of a time when privacy actually was important and humiliation
was unacceptable. While government agencies devise all manner of legislative
tricks to mislead people into believing that their privacy really
is guarded, the fact is these gestures are empty. Recent examples
include the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of
1996 (a.k.a. "the HIPAA law"); signing for every
prescription upon pick-up; and standing so-many-feet behind the person
ahead in a pharmacy or bank-teller line. It's all for show.
News
was made when celebrity talk show host Rush Limbaugh suffered though
the chagrin of having his Viagra prescription inspected by overzealous
carry-on handlers at an airport in 2007. The name on the prescription
bottle was his doctor's instead of himself precisely to avoid
embarrassment, as he had recently experienced great difficulties overcoming
the pain of unsuccessful back surgeries and subsequent near-deafness.
But because he was a celebrity — and a conservative, to boot
— no humiliation was deemed too great, and his prescription
container made headlines. No one mentioned anything about "intoxicants"
or "probable cause" then, either.
However,
it didn't even make the local newspaper when a nicely dressed,
Caucasian, 50-something lady, with no history of confrontational behavior,
was hauled out of a similar airport security line at the Dulles International
Airport. Around her neck was a tiny cloth strap securing a drivers
license and boarding pass visible through a thin, transparent pocket.
The device is still sold expressly for airport security lines, so
that important ID's cannot be inadvertently dropped or lost.
A female screener ordered her — not very politely — to
take it off and place it in on the conveyer belt. The passenger respectfully
explained that the ID holder was approved specifically for the Transportation
Security Administration (TSA), and she asked to keep it through the
metal detector.
That
was all it took. Immediately, the hapless passenger was submitted
to a full-fledged pat-down (with the agent hitting her deliberately
in the crotch with the wand). When the traveler expressed shock, she
was told to "just shut up."
Unfortunately,
the lady couldn't really hear the screener because her back
was turned at that point, and her hearing aid was in the security
bowl to avoid setting off the alarm! The lady's husband had
to intervene to facilitate communication, thereby delaying them both
— for no reason other than the passenger was deemed non-compliant.
Incongruously,
in the security line parallel to the one this couple was navigating,
a Middle Eastern woman wearing the Muslim head-scarf was a TSA agent
examining that line's carry-on baggage!
Do
we really want to live in a country whose officials deliberately harass
and embarrass good citizens and humiliate honor students? If we do,
then we must have learned a lot more from the Marxists who organized
the protests of the 1960's and '70s than demonstrating,
agitating and rioting.
Come
to think of it, we're not doing much of that sort of thing anymore.
Where are the hordes of "conscientious objectors" rushing
to the aid of Savana Redding? For that matter, where are the Republican
conservatives and the libertarians?
For
further information on the Savana Redding case, see:
1,
"The School
Crotch Inspector," by Jacob Sullum, April 2, 2008.
2, "9th
Circuit to Reexamine Student Strip-Search Case," by Mark
Walsh, Education Week,
3, "School
strip search of girl, 13, goes to court," Associated Press,
March 27, 2008,
4,
Or search Google by typing "Savana Redding+9th Circuit Court"
for additional stories.http://www.newswithviews.com/Eakman/beverly44.htm
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