Ohio Mother Sues School District After Daughter Illegally Strip Searched
The mother of an Ohio eighth-grader is suing her daughter’s school district and three of her daughter's middle school staff members after her daughter was subjected to an illegal “strip search.”
The lawsuit was filed against three employees of East Lake Middle School and Willoughby Eastlake Schools Board of Education on December 28 in the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio by the child’s mother Kristen Yeckley and her legal team.
According to the child's mother, on September 7, the eighth grader was “held against her will’’ and stripped down to her underpants as school staff searched for a vape pen. As detailed by the lawsuit, the eighth grader had allowed one of her classmates to place a vape pen in her locker. The same day, the principal of the school, Colleen Blaurock, questioned the eighth-grader and asked that the school’s nurse's aide, Rosalyn Rubertino, perform a body search on the student. As a result of their participation in the search, the principal, nurse’s aide, and school nurse Megan Kuhlman were named as defendants in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit explains that although the eighth grader allowed her friend to store the vape pen in her locker, she agreed despite feeling “uncomfortable” and not wanting to “upset her friend.”
After school staff was alerted that there may have been a vape pen circulating in the school, the staff were determined to find it. When school staff didn’t find the vape pen in the student's gym or hallway locker, they proceeded to body search the student. Although school staff never found the vape pen, the student was later suspended for allowing a classmate to store the vape pen in her locker.
The lawsuit explains, “Blaurock, who subsequently admitted that was an honest girl who had a history of being truthful with her, would not give up the search. At that point, Blaurock had no reasonable cause to believe that the vape pen was on person.”
The family’s lawyer, Jared Klebanow, shared with local outlet Fox 8, “What she did is order this teenage girl, this student, to strip down to her underwear — which, you can imagine how traumatizing that must be.”
The lawsuit went on to explain that the nurse's aide, Rubertino, had no experience in conducting searches. When Rubertino called the school nurse who was assigned to another building that day, the school nurse directed Rubertino to conduct a “body search” but did not explain what the search should entail. “Rubertino hung up the phone and asked to take off all of her clothes except her underpants,” the lawsuit explains. As the search was conducted, Blaurock stood outside the office.
The family’s legal team explains that the student did not have the choice to refuse or leave the office. Instead, at one point, the student asked “can I put my clothes back on?” but “ came back in, did a UV light of her, a check of her eyes to see if her eyes indicated any drug use and finally, after all that was done, permitted her to put her clothes back on.”
In addition to the mental trauma of the experience, the family’s legal team contends that the school district does not have a policy that allows school staff to conduct strip searches of students. While the school's manual allows searches of school lockers and cars on school property, personal searches of individuals are not mentioned. A policy handbook shared on the school district’s website does share that any bodily searches that take place can only be conducted by police officers.
As part of the lawsuit, the family is accusing the school staff and the school district of violating the student's constitutional rights including due process. The defendants are also accused of intentionally inflicting emotional distress on the student. Additionally, the lawsuit accuses the district of failing to properly train and supervise its employees.
“Students do not check their constitutional rights at the door when they walk into school,” the family’s lawyer shared. “Subjecting a teenage girl to a strip search over an object which posed no threat of violence to students or staff was unreasonable and in violation of her civil rights.”
