Oxnard District Rules Out Strip-Searches : Education: An administrator’s proposal would have allowed officials to ask students to roll up pants or raise shirts, but its language raised fear of invasion of privacy.

The new superintendent of the Oxnard Union High School District moved quickly Thursday to end a controversy over a proposed change in school policy that would have permitted strip-searches of students.

Students in the district will not be subjected to strip-searches under any circumstances and the proposed policy change will be rewritten to make that clear, Supt. Ian Kirkpatrick said Thursday.

The issue came up Wednesday night, just hours after Kirkpatrick was named to his new position, when board members balked at a proposal to set procedures for searching students suspected of carrying drugs or weapons.

Christine Smith, director of student services, said her proposal would have permitted officials to have a student raise his shirt or pants leg, for example.

But the proposal used the term “strip-search,” which “carries a deeper connotation,” Kirkpatrick said. “I think we will scrupulously avoid that word” in revising the proposal.

“When we get to a situation where we begin to remove an article of student’s clothing, well, I can’t imagine that,” Kirkpatrick said.

“But having students roll up their pants leg, turn pockets inside out, maybe take a jacket off is reasonable and legitimate.”

Board member Janet Lindgren agreed.

“I think occasionally you need to pat down a kid or ask a boy to raise his T-shirt to see if something is stuck in his trousers,” Lindgren said. But, she added, “There would not be a strip-search. Heaven forbid anything like that.”

Wednesday night, Lindgren and the four other board members said they were uncomfortable with the idea of strip-searches and said the policy needed clarification in a number of areas. The policy did not specify who could conduct searches and how far they could go.

“Any search of a person (including a pat-down) shall be in the presence of one witness and shall be conducted by persons of the same sex as the suspect,” the proposal said. “Strip-searches should be avoided under all conditions unless an extreme emergency exists. . . .”

Assistant Supt. Gary Davis said it will be several weeks before a revised proposal is brought back to the board.

Lindgren said administrators were told to seek guidance from the California School Boards Assn. in Sacramento.

Michael Fallon, association spokesman, said the state law on searching students is unusually straightforward and succinct:

“No school employee shall conduct a search that involves (a) conducting a body cavity search of a pupil manually or with an instrument; (b) removing or arranging any or all of the clothing of a pupil to permit a visual inspection of the underclothing, breast, buttocks or genitalia of the pupil.”

Ronald Stephens, head of the Encino-based National School Safety Center, a federally sponsored agency that advises school districts on security issues, said his organization also opposes strip-searches of students.

Stephens contradicted Smith’s assertion on Wednesday that her proposal was based on a report by his organization. The report Smith cited actually counsels administrators not to perform strip-searches.

“Courts have consistently upheld students’ claims that strip-searches violate their rights. They are simply too intrusive,” said the report, written in February and entitled “Student Searches and the Law.”

“It’s absolutely foolish to suggest that they be done,” Stephens said. “If you want some guaranteed lawsuits, just start strip-searching.”

Smith did not return several phone calls on Thursday.

The Oxnard board unanimously approved another Smith proposal that spells out students’ rights when lockers, cars and other personal property may be searched.

The center’s report said schools are generally free to search students’ lockers and other property, provided that they follow established procedures, including advising students of the possibility of a search.

Although he opposes body searches, Stephens commended Smith and the Oxnard district for establishing procedures for other situations.

“There are about 3 million incidents of crime and violence on campuses each year, a big increase in the presence of weapons, gangs, drugs,” Stephens said. “What we’re finding is a number of districts have no policy for search and seizure.”