School 'strip-searched 12-year-old girls for drugs because they were acting giddy'

Incident raised race and gender bias concerns

Members of the public fill pack out seats at a school board meeting at East Middle School, Binghamton, New York. The community converged to demand answers after reports four girls were strip-searched by the school because they seemed 'giddy'. ( (Ashley Biviano/Press & Sun-Bulletin/AP))

Four girls at a school in upstate New York were taken aside two weeks ago after a school official thought they were acting strangely.

What happened next is in dispute, and has led the governor to call for an investigation.

The parents of each of the girls have said their daughters, all African-American and 12 years old, were taken to their school’s health office, where they were questioned and strip-searched for drugs.

School officials have refuted those claims, saying that a strip search never took place and that administrators at East Middle School in Binghampton only conducted a routine medical assessment out of concern for the girls’ health and safety.

Reports about the incident spread quickly on social media, leading local community organisations to protest and rally in support of the students, which drew national attention.

On Wednesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo called for the state education department to investigate the incident.

“The allegations that 12-year-old girls were strip-searched for drugs after being perceived as ‘hyper and giddy’ at a Binghamton middle school are deeply disturbing and raise serious concerns of racial and gender bias,” Cuomo said in a statement. “Asking a child to remove her clothing – and then commenting on her body – is shaming, humiliating, traumatic sexual harassment.”

Emily DeSantis, a spokeswoman for the education department, said state officials would work with state police and local leaders. The state police said it had offered to assist the Binghamton Police Department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Binghamton City School District said in a statement that it had conducted an internal investigation and found “no evidence” that a strip search occurred. But the district also said that it had subsequently hired a third-party law firm to review the incident.

“We are committed to preserving public trust and we welcome full and objective assessments,” the school district said.

The turmoil over the allegations erupted last week after a local social justice group, Progressive Leaders of Tomorrow, urged community members to attend a school board meeting and demand answers. Nearly 200 people showed up, according to The Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin.

On its Facebook page, the group, which describes itself as “a collective of advocates”, shared a statement saying that it had met with the girls’ parents, who told them the girls were searched for appearing to be “hyper and giddy”. It called the searches discriminatory and “racially motivated".

The students’ parents said in a joint statement on Friday that the girls had been traumatised by the experience. They also said the girls missed days of classes because they no longer felt safe at their school.

They added that their daughters were held for more than an hour while they were “subjected to sobriety tests and observations” by a school nurse and school administrators. The girls were told to remove their clothing so they could be searched for illegal substances, the parents said.

Three of the girls consented to the requests, the parents said, but one student refused to remove her clothing and received an in-school suspension. The parents said they were not notified about the searches by the school and did not consent to the children being searched.

“Listening to our children recount and relive this trauma has been an experience we would not wish on any parent,” they said. “And we hope no other child has to experience what they have endured.”

In a statement before Mr Cuomo’s announcement, the Binghamton City School District disputed parts of the students’ account. It said that school officials did not suspend or punish any child involved in the incident, which the district said was a routine “medical assessment". It also said that it had contacted the parents about the assessment.

The school district has also said multiple times in the past two weeks that no strip search was conducted.

In a statement last week, it said that school administrators are trained to “recognise behavior that it is out of character” and when they see it, they will sometimes conduct medical evaluations out of concern for students’ safety.

In accordance with school policy, that process may require students to remove “bulky outside clothing” so that their pulse and blood pressure can be checked, but “this is not the same as a strip search”, the district said.

The New York Times