Pupils Improperly Strip-Searched for Missing Money, Mo. District Says
School district officials said Wednesday an investigation has confirmed that a group of third-grade students were improperly strip-searched for missing lunch money.
According to parents, at least two teachers at Pitcher Elementary searched 23 students for $5 in missing lunch money March 18. The money was eventually found, though not through the searches.
The school’s principal and two teachers were suspended last week. School district spokesman Edwin Birch said they remained suspended, but said state law prohibited him from talking about any other disciplinary action they face.
District officials said in a written statement and in a letter to parents that the searches were “an egregious violation” of policy and that the conduct of the adults was “abhorrent.”
Parents have said a female third-grade teacher took the girls to a restroom, then had them pair up in stalls, where they were told to check each other’s underwear.
A male physical education teacher took the boys to the gymnasium where each was told to strip and shake his underwear, parents said.
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