Out of control, bullying public school officials continue their deplorable acts of violation against young children over incidents that puzzlingly seem to typically originate in the school lunchroom.
Recall the recent story of a boy who was suspended from school for five days after being interrogated in the Vice Principal’s office for hours on end, told he was carrying an “illegal” substance, threatened with transfer to another school and warned that he would be enrolled in a teen alcoholics support group after being called out by the lunch police for bringing a simple bottle of kombucha in his lunchbox packed by his own Mother!
Then there was the story earlier this year of a preschooler at West Hoke Elementary in North Carolina who was given a highly processed, cafeteria lunch containing pink slime chicken nuggets because the lunch police inspecting her lunchbox decided that the turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips, and apple juice her mother packed were not nutritious enough.
Apparently, North Carolina school officials did not learn their lesson from the huge negative publicity and backlash from that stunt because an even worse lunchroom incident has been revealed in a recent lawsuit by The Rutherford Institute.
According to the complaint Cox v the Sampson County Board of Education filed on December 6, 2012, Union Elementary School Assistant Principal Teresa Holmes allegedly strip searched 10 year old J.C. Cox as a result of the chivalrous act of helping a classmate retrieve her dropped coins from under the lunchroom table.
A press release by The Rutherford Institute on the matter describes in detail how the lunchroom incident went down all without a parent or guardian present at any time:
… on Friday, June 12, 2012, J.C. Cox, a fifth-grader attending Union Elementary School in Clinton, N.C., was in the school cafeteria eating lunch when a female classmate dropped money onto the floor.
J.C. went under the table, retrieved the coins and returned them to the girl. Upon approaching J.C.’s table, Assistant Principal Teresa Holmes, who was also in the cafeteria at the time, was informed that someone had dropped $20 on the floor, that the money was missing, and that J.C. had gone under the table in search of the missing money.
Holmes asked J.C. if he had the money and told him that unless he returned it, she would have to search him. J.C. told Holmes he did not have the money.
Holmes then ordered J.C. to come with her to her office. Holmes also called a school custodian and asked him to meet her at the office. Once there, Holmes again asked J.C. if he had the money and again, he told her “no.” J.C. even pulled out his pockets to show that he had no money.
The assistant principal then told J.C. she had no choice but to search him, and that she was within her legal right to do so. Holmes allegedly ordered J.C. to remove his shoes, socks, pants and shirt.
With J.C. stripped to his underwear, Holmes ran her finger around the waistband of his undershorts.
Holmes did not find any money on J.C. While in Holmes’ office, another teacher arrived to report that the $20 had been found on the cafeteria floor.
When J.C.’s mother later contacted the school to voice her concerns about the strip search, she was reportedly told that school personnel have the right to perform strip searches and that the assistant principal was within her rights in doing so.
Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute accuse Ms. Holmes of violating J.C.’s Fourth Amendment rights when he was inexplicably strip searched for stooping down to help out a classmate. In addition, they cite the 2009 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in Safford Unif. Sch. Dist. # 1 v. Redding which ruled that school officials such as Ms. Holmes absolutely do not have the right or authority to strip search a student unless there is evidence that the child is in possession of a dangerous item.
These frequent acts of violation against children and flagrant ignoring of parental rights by public school officials must stop and hopefully with this lawsuit, The Rutherford Institute can make some positive headway in this area.
The lunchroom has clearly become a warzone in many public schools instead of a healthy environment for eating and sharing with classmates that it is intended to be.
Do you have an act of lunchtime bullying by school officials to share? Please chime in with a comment.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Only in a politically correct society gone amuck would you see a young boy falsely accused, humiliated and degraded for doing something good. The message they are sending to these children is if you try and help someone else or be kind instead of mean, we will punish you. This individual needs to be terminated immediately and given a job sweeping the floor somewhere, but only where there are no innocent children around. I would be angry to the ninth degree if this were my child…! Shame on the school systems for letting ignorant people like this be in charge of impressionable little children.
the school is a war zone. poor kids, school sucks.
Thank you for sharing this, Sarah. It’s really important for us all to be reminded that blind trust in any institution is foolish. Most schools and educators are wonderful, but as parents we need to be aware of what’s really going on, and listen to our kids when they tell us that something’s not right.
Yes I have been battling sons school for some time on the Fluoride tablets/treatments they continue pushing along with there constant highly suggesting he get vaccinated if he wants to continue being indoctr I mean educated there. Now the RFID program is in full swing with these Rothschild/Rockefeller owned Institutions. Where does it end? I have school docs that comabat their BS if anyone wants them. Email me http://www.Nvnc.org
This is beyond ridiculous! I hope they win this lawsuit!
This is sad what happened and definitely NOT right!
But to blame the entire public school system for one school officials wrong doing is extreme and prejudges thousands or maybe millions of workers who are doing a good job trying to create a safe learning environment for the public. Especially for kids who don’t have the possibility at home, maybe because their parents work too many hours to give them the time, or maybe these kid’s parents just don’t care enough to give them the time at home. This is the reality of a kid who does not grow up with money or in a loving family.
What I hear from a lot of you commenting sounds a lot like this… “A black man stole from a store yesterday, so that’s why I never let a black man into my store!” Seriously?
Since when did one person’s wrong carry the weight for a whole group of people’s actions?
Both of my parents are retired public school teachers and they NEVER did something like this. My Dad receives thank you letters from students 20 years later telling him how much he changed their life! My sister is a public school teacher now, and I know from growing up around public teachers that a lot of them care and would never do such a thing! I’m not saying that this sort of thing would never happen… and of course the school system contains people who don’t care and want to milk it or abuse it, or abuse kids! Who the hell knows. The world is a messed up place, and it’s not just the public schools. Private schools, churches, malls, police officers, busses, I don’t know… you name it. What the hell doesn’t have someone messed up in it!? Does that make it all bad???
And no, I don’t agree with the way the entire school system is run, I don’t want a “police state” system, even though that seems to be where we are headed in general. I wish people were teaching sustainability, gardening, practical tools, understanding mind body phenomenon… but I you what I don’t blame every person in the system for it’s problems. Some are bringing good stuff to the schools. Some people care and are truly helping to make a difference. I know some who are angels, probably treating the kids in their classes better than some of their parents would.
One persons wrong doing is not everyones wrong doing. Let’s come back to our senses now, and place blame only where it is due. No need to throw it around like a flame thrower all willy nilly!
I would like to know why a child can’t take meals to school? my granddaughter tells us that lots of times when she gets to the server they may not have the main course they were serving and come up with a snack if any thing at all. She tells me they can’t take meals to school, so when she gets home she is usually starving for something to eat. i don’t see this is fair when we have to pay for her meals.
If her parents haven’t checked into this, I would recommend that they do. It could very well be she didn’t understand the rules/system about lunch. If her parents can’t get to the school see if you can check on this…some schools will let a grandparent fill in for the parents, some won’t. If they let you, see why they don’t have enough food (I find that strange….all schools my kids were in had leftovers everyday…I worked the lunchroom and ate at school) or why they won’t let her bring lunch.
I’m not saying anything against your granddaughter, but something is not adding up.
The “zero tolerance” public school laws were designed by right-wing fascists in order to prepare the new generation for a lifetime of police state living and total surveillance.
Schools are nothing more than training grounds to create future prison inmates.
Just to demonstrate what an 8th grade education was a century ago. How many of you public school grads could pass this test?
http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-spine/79470/1895-8th-grade-final-exam-i-couldnt-pass-it-could-you#
NONE, even professors of today can’t!
Homeschooling is the best way to go when raising children.