http://ktla.com/2017/06/08/900-high-school-students-in-georgia-groped-by-officers-during-warrantless-drug-sweep-lawsuit-says/

 

According to the suit, officers cupped boys’ genitals, touched girls’ vaginas, reached inside bras, touched girls’ bare breasts, patted their buttocks and placed their hands inside students’ underwear.

 

NO DRUGS WERE FOUND.

 

But the sheriff told CNN affiliate WALB the searches were legal — despite not having warrants or permission from parents or the school system — because school administrators were present during the pat-downs.

 

Let me understand this correctly.  As long as a school administrator is present, you can grope minors under the guise of "looking for drugs"?  Damn, no wonder so many bad guys become cops. /s

 

How do you even come up to pull this off?  I get you had 13 students SUSPECTED of being involved with drugs, but how do you justify searching 900 students?  Better yet, how do you justify searching them WITHOUT THEIR PARENTS PRESENT OR PARENTAL CONSENT? 

 

 

Sounds like something LSPD would do. If that's true, the place needs a new sheriff and a news school administration. Fast.

Just now, Hastings said:

Sounds like something LSPD would do. If that's true, the place needs a new sheriff and a news school administration. Fast.

 

It's definitely true.  The parents have already gotten attorneys and are filing a class action suit.

 

Thing is, even if the students consented to the searches, they legally cannot consent due to their age.  On top of all this, the sheriff KNEW the students would try and call their parents, who'd of shut this shit show down IMMEDIATELY.  He took away their phones to prevent them from calling their parents.

When I was in high school, we always had random drug searches. But normally the school went on "lock down" and if the k9 hit at your locker, or if the dog came into the classroom and hit on you, you were escorted out, and patted down, but I've never heard of a "Mass Pat Down"... a little weird.. 

Wait, you mean like without warrants or not in connection with an active investigation, they lock the school down and search for drugs? I only had something like that in the army and observed in prison :D

 

No one would dare to pull that off in my country...

38 minutes ago, BLS501 said:

When I was in high school, we always had random drug searches. But normally the school went on "lock down" and if the k9 hit at your locker, or if the dog came into the classroom and hit on you, you were escorted out, and patted down, but I've never heard of a "Mass Pat Down"... a little weird.. 

 

They actually locked down your school just for random searches?  That's very extreme.  In my school, they just brought in the dogs to sniff lockers.  We never had a real lock down for anything.  Just drills.

Everyone involved should be immediatey fired and blacklisted from any future law enforcement job.

11 hours ago, Deputy Rourke said:

 

They actually locked down your school just for random searches?  That's very extreme.  In my school, they just brought in the dogs to sniff lockers.  We never had a real lock down for anything.  Just drills.

They locked it down, so no one could go out in the hallways, with the dogs and distract the dogs, or try to leave with drugs on them. 

5 hours ago, Riley24 said:

Everyone involved should be immediatey fired and blacklisted from any future law enforcement job.

 

Sadly, I don't see this happening. I hate to admit it, but more and more it seems like these corrupt officials get away with everything.

 

1 hour ago, BLS501 said:

They locked it down, so no one could go out in the hallways, with the dogs and distract the dogs, or try to leave with drugs on them. 

 

That is extremely excessive.  At least back in our day they wouldn't of dreamed of pulling this (referring to the article).

*Deleted*

Edited June 11, 20178 yr by Warwick

8 minutes ago, Warwick said:

Why are you forming opinions based on one sided, sensationalized news articles? And you're not posting excepts from an official report or any kind of credible inquest, you're just posting shit from a local news outlet about what someone says happened...

 

 

KTLA isn't credible?

 

The lawsuits the parents filed isn't credible?

 

The schoolboard verifying isn't credible?

 

The SHERIFF himself saying he doesn't need a warrant to search minors, nor needs parental permission to GROPE and TOUCH intimate parts of children.

 

Either you're trolling, or you didn't bother AT ALL to read the article and decided to take the lazy route and just reply.  Good grief, fucking read before replying.

Edited June 9, 20178 yr by Deputy Rourke

On 09/06/2017 at 9:07 AM, Hastings said:

No one would dare to pull that off in my country...

 

 Neither would they do it here as well. I've never heard of a drug search in any school unless it was the follow-up of an investigation on drug dealing.

Same thing occurred several times back when I was in high school, especially on 4/20. You'd see the slicktop black trucks outside the building and randomly throughout the day the school would go on complete lockdown. Doors locked, windows covered, lights off, everyone in a classroom. Police swept the school with dogs. I remember my senior year we had a sweep. Total of 6 busts that day. No warrants, no warnings, nothing. The idea behind it is that if you're on school property using school lockers, you lose your 4th amendment on school grounds. Just a search of the school, though no one was patted down individually unless they were suspected of having drugs. It's totally normal for the Police to do it, at least in my home state. 

Edited June 26, 20178 yr by TheDivineHustle

On 6/8/2017 at 10:11 PM, Deputy Rourke said:

how do you justify searching them WITHOUT THEIR PARENTS PRESENT OR PARENTAL CONSENT?

You being on the campus is enough reason for an officer to search you. If I remember correctly, staff can not search you either without a LE officer present, or probable cause. I can't remember which. I do know if an officer on a school campus has cause, they can search you without any consent from your parent(s) or guardian(s). TLO v. New Jersey goes in depth on a situation very similar to this.

 

Also take note the end first sentence; "a federal lawsuit claims."

 

If an event like the one that's claimed to have occurred actually occurred, that would definitely be a major shock to me. You have school staff present and police officers present during this search. Take in consideration, 900 high-school students are making a claim that they were literally groped, touched under their clothing, and molested by (I don't know how many officers) in front of school staff members. Now I'm not saying they're lying, but... high-school students. How hard is it really to get a false or poorly lacking in evidence rumour spread around your entire school? It's wildfire.

51 minutes ago, Lundy said:

You being on the campus is enough reason for an officer to search you. If I remember correctly, staff can not search you either without a LE officer present, or probable cause. I can't remember which. I do know if an officer on a school campus has cause, they can search you without any consent from your parent(s) or guardian(s). TLO v. New Jersey goes in depth on a situation very similar to this.

 

Also take note the end first sentence; "a federal lawsuit claims."

 

If an event like the one that's claimed to have occurred actually occurred, that would definitely be a major shock to me. You have school staff present and police officers present during this search. Take in consideration, 900 high-school students are making a claim that they were literally groped, touched under their clothing, and molested by (I don't know how many officers) in front of school staff members. Now I'm not saying they're lying, but... high-school students. How hard is it really to get a false or poorly lacking in evidence rumour spread around your entire school? It's wildfire.

 

You said it yourself, 900 students are making this claim.  I highly doubt all 900 students are liars.   tried looking up this particular scenario to get a source, but couldn't find anything specific for this situation.  That said, however, the law states that probable cause is needed to be searched.  Once you enter the school, you do not forfeit your fourth amendment rights.  There is misconception that once you're in school, you have no rights.  If that was the case, I could upskirt and not get in trouble, because the girl has no right to privacy.  We have laws that are there to specifically protect children, and this instance is one where that law would protect them.  Every single officer that was present violated the law, and violated those kids.  There is a huge reason they took their phones away, hide all possible evidence of this warrantless mass search.  Finding drugs on a few students in a school does not justify searching the entire student body. 

12 minutes ago, Deputy Rourke said:

 

You said it yourself, 900 students are making this claim.  I highly doubt all 900 students are liars.   tried looking up this particular scenario to get a source, but couldn't find anything specific for this situation.  That said, however, the law states that probable cause is needed to be searched.  Once you enter the school, you do not forfeit your fourth amendment rights.  There is misconception that once you're in school, you have no rights.  If that was the case, I could upskirt and not get in trouble, because the girl has no right to privacy.  We have laws that are there to specifically protect children, and this instance is one where that law would protect them.  Every single officer that was present violated the law, and violated those kids.  There is a huge reason they took their phones away, hide all possible evidence of this warrantless mass search.  Finding drugs on a few students in a school does not justify searching the entire student body. 

Or all 900 students are victims of widespread rumours... I've been through my 4 years, I know exactly how this happens.

As for the phones, that happens here, too. If they don't have staff security to watch you from using them, they'll take them while they investigate.

In schools, it's the duty of staff and personnel to provide a safe environment for their students. If they have claims pertaining to a wide range of students, they'd probably do a mass investigation into the schools students. An event like this just seems outlandish. I wouldn't be surprised if the claims were false of molestation and the media just blew it out of proportion as they always do.

11 minutes ago, Lundy said:

Or all 900 students are victims of widespread rumours... I've been through my 4 years, I know exactly how this happens.

As for the phones, that happens here, too. If they don't have staff security to watch you from using them, they'll take them while they investigate.

In schools, it's the duty of staff and personnel to provide a safe environment for their students. If they have claims pertaining to a wide range of students, they'd probably do a mass investigation into the schools students. An event like this just seems outlandish. I wouldn't be surprised if the claims were false of molestation and the media just blew it out of proportion as they always do.

 

I've been through my 4 years as well,  and yes, rumors have and always will be a thing..  They didn't have claims pertaining to a wide range of students, they found drugs on a few students, which could just be 1 or 2, and they ran with it.  There was no basis for this mass search, and the situation is very, very selective on when a mass search is plausible.   A mass investigation isn't "searching every student".  That would be talking to students to figure out what's going on. This was a mass violation of rights. Even if it's false that the kids were sexually touched, their amendment rights were still violated.  One or two kids having drugs does not constitute as probable cause to search the entire student body.

Edited June 26, 20178 yr by Deputy Rourke

3 minutes ago, Deputy Rourke said:

 

I've been through my 4 years as well, rumors are a thing, but still.  They didn't have claims pertaining to a wide range of students.  They found drugs on a few students, which could just be 1 or 2, and they ran with it.  There was no basis for this mass search, and the situation is very, very selective on when a mass search is plausible.   A mass investigation isn't "searching every student".  That would be talking to students to figure out what's going on. This was a mass violation of rights. Even if it's false that the kids were sexually touched, their amendment rights were still violated.  One or two kids having drugs does not constitute as probable cause to search the entire student body.

Still, we're basing claims on one news article. There's little information to go with. I'm sure there's plenty of unheard evidence.

3 minutes ago, Lundy said:

Still, we're basing claims on one news article. There's little information to go with. I'm sure there's plenty of unheard evidence.

 

Sadly, that's normally how it is.  News reports the parts that make people angry as fuck, and purposely exclude any of the good or anything that'd make you change your mind on the topic.  It seems to be a common trend nowadays to not report the entire story.

There's more details and an interview with the superintendent of the school district here: http://www.walb.com/story/35168276/worth-co-sheriff-defends-controversial-school-search