[ad_1]
Breaking News Emails
Receive last minute alerts and special reports. News and stories that matter, delivered the mornings of the week.
SUBSCRIBE
By Erik Ortiz
Four college girls left the cafeteria and walked down the hall, talking and laughing, when they were stopped by their director at East Middle School in Binghamton, New York State.
The girls – all 12 years old, black or Latin – were taken to the health unit and, without any explanation, subjected to "discriminatory, dehumanizing and illegal strip searches", according to a lawsuit filed Monday by their family and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
The lawsuit, which lays out charges of racial bias and a violation of girls' civil rights during the January 15 incident, is the latest since the Binghamton School District denied any strip search and announced hiring an independent firm to review the allegations.
The charges also prompted New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to announce an investigation by the Department of Education.
"Asking a child to take off his clothes – and then comment on his body – is a humiliating, traumatic and humiliating sexual harassment," Cuomo said in January.
According to a complaint filed in federal court in the North District of New York, a nurse examined the vital data of the girls, searched their businesses and other school officials and subjected each to "humiliating and inappropriate about their life ". body."
The nurse is also accused of carrying out a sobriety test on one of the girls and ordering her to remove her clothes, which she refused. In the end, the lawsuit says that no contraband or evidence of wrongdoing has been found.
The lawsuit indicates that school staff never contacted the girls' parents before proceeding with the searches, but that the principal, Tim Simonds, later told the parents that he had sent the girls at the health office because he thought he had acted "hyper" and "dizzying". . "
"The laughter and vertigo of teenage children are not objective facts that give rise to a reasonable suspicion justifying an intrusive search by school officials," says the prosecution.
The girls' allegations that a strip search took place have divided the population of Binghamton, a town near the Pennsylvania border with approximately 45,000 inhabitants, 75% of whom are Caucasian.
Activists have organized rallies outside East Middle School, and the NAACP's Defense and Legal Education Fund has been involved in the federal lawsuit, which aims to obtain compensatory damages and that the school district adopt policies to prevent this from happening again.
After public outrage in January, the Binghamton City School District said in a statement that "the school officials have not conducted a strip search".
Instead, officials stated that "misinformation" had been posted on social media about the incident and that, according to medical assessments, a person had to remove his "bulky outer clothing to expose an arm and allow access to vital items like blood pressure and pulse ".
The city's school board also said that none of the girls had been punished and that they had been allowed to return to class.
However, the minutes said that one of the girls was suspended at school "without explanation" and that they all felt traumatized and missed school for several days.
The girls were temporarily placed in an alternative school after feeling "embarrassed, humiliated and targeted," the suit adds.
The lawsuit indicates that all school personnel involved in the search are white and allegedly claimed that the school's deputy principal, Michelle Raleigh, had stated that she "feared" to She was left alone with the girls and the nurse described them as noisy, disrespectful, and having "attitudes" – which evoke "too common stereotypes about black and Latin girls".
The Binghamton City School District did not immediately return a request for comment on Tuesday. The Ministry of Education has stated that it does not comment on ongoing litigation.
As part of her investigation under Cuomo, a spokeswoman said the department was working with the New York State Police, the Center for School Safety and local officials to determine the next steps and " ensure that no similar situation will occur in the future ".
"It is clear that this situation is extremely worrying and we share the Governor's goal, which is to learn the facts," spokeswoman Emily DeSantis said in a statement.
[ad_2]
Source link