Middle-schooler forced to show bra during vape search, lawsuit says

Then, the principal, Veronica Johnson, asked the student to lift her shirt high enough that she could “view the minor child’s bra,” according to the lawsuit.

The student’s mother filed the lawsuit this month in the District Court of Oklahoma County, naming Johnson, Heartland Middle and Edmond Public Schools as defendants. The complaint states that the minor was “improperly and unreasonably subjected to a strip search” with allegations including negligence, assault, and violations of district policy and state law.

The complaint also alleges that the defendants violated the Fourth Amendment rights of the student, calling the incident an “illegal warrantless search.”

Shelby Shelton, an attorney representing the student’s mother, told The Washington Post that the 14-year-old does not own a vape and that neither girl brought in for the search had vapes with them at school.

“Even if they were guilty of what they did, is the threat of them having a vape at enough that you’re going to subject them to this sort of situation and treatment?” Shelton said. “And I think that that’s where the whole issue lies here.”

A spokesperson for Edmond Public Schools said the district could not comment on current litigation. Johnson did not respond to a request for comment.

When the Heartland Middle student was brought in for the search, she had to go to a room “with an uncovered window” that had a “clear view” of other areas of the school, according to the lawsuit.

The student told school officials she didn’t have a vape, Shelton said. The principal then told the student to lift her shirt in front of the female school resource officer and the second student, the attorney added.

Once she’d lifted her shirt and spun around, Johnson asked her what undergarments she was wearing under her pants, the lawsuit alleges. Then, Johnson asked her to lift her shirt high enough that her bra was visible, the document states.

Shelton said the 14-year-old student was nervous during the search, laughing out of discomfort.

The search was an “extreme and drastic step,” in particular because it happened in front of a window, Shelton said.

For about a year after the incident, the middle-schooler attended classes online. Her family is trying to sell their home and move in an attempt to enroll in a different district, Shelton said.

“It’s just a situation that shouldn’t happen to any children,” he said.

Similar to Oklahoma state law, Edmond Public Schools’ student search policy states that “in no event shall a strip search of a student be allowed.”

“No student’s clothing, except cold weather outerwear, shall be removed prior to or during the conduct of any warrantless search,” the school policy states.

The district’s policy allows for superintendents, principals, teachers or security officers to search students to “preserve any dangerous weapons, or controlled dangerous substances, intoxicating beverages, low-point beer, or missing or stolen property that might be in their possession,” as does state law.

The district’s policy also stipulates that “illegal items or other possessions or substances reasonably determined to be a threat to the safety or security of others may be seized by school authorities.” Students who refuse a search could be suspended, it adds.

“Exposure of [the student’s] bare abdomen and undergarments constitutes a strip search, which is in clear violation” of the district search policy and Oklahoma’s statute, the lawsuit says.

Shelton noted that a legal precedent for school searches was established in the 2009 Safford Unified School District v. Redding case. In that case, an Arizona eighth-grader was strip-searched on suspicion she might have ibuprofen, which would have been in violation of school policy.

The Supreme Court ruled that the search was unconstitutional but that the school officials involved in the search were not liable.

Shelton said he hopes the case brings accountability to the district and, more broadly, to improper searches that might happen within schools — something children might not always reveal to their parents.

“The airport’s about the closest thing we get to being subjected to that,” he said. “At that age, in that situation, with another student present and with the window open to the rest of the school under just an allegation … is just unreasonable on its face.”