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By COLIN HICKEY
Staff Writer 09/28/2007

The announcement was the first public disclosure that a strip search had taken place at the school.

That change in policy is the result of an agreement struck between the Civil Liberties Union and attorneys for Winslow High School, the civil rights group said.

The agreement comes in response to a strip search for drugs -- the type of drug was not identified -- of a female Winslow High School student. The Civil Liberties Union said the student contacted its staff earlier this year about the incident.

That search, according to the group, involved the student being required to remove all her clothing above the waist.

The Civil Liberties Union and school officials chose not to identify the student, reveal her age or provide any other details about the incident, including whether male or female school employees were involved.

School and MCLU officials would not say exactly when the search took place, but Winslow Police Chief Richard A. Grindall said the date was Dec. 15, 2006.

School officials and people with the MCLU declined to disclose whether legal action has been taken against the school or school administrators as a result of the incident.

School Superintendent Elaine B. Miller on Thursday referred questions regarding the matter to Winslow High School Principal Douglas Carville. Carville said he could not discuss it.

"Both the Maine Civil Liberties Union Foundation and Winslow High School have jointly agreed not to discuss the matter further publicly," he said, "so that is what the information is that I have and what I can share."

Shenna Bellows, executive director of the MCLU, confirmed that both parties are not talking about the incident, but she made clear her agency's view of the issue.

"It is our position," she said, "that every school in Maine should prohibit strip searches of students by school personnel."

Grindall, the police chief, said he was made aware of the strip search after the fact. His officers, he said, were not involved in the search.

"Our officer, Adam Sirois, had responded," Grindall said of the incident. "The search had been done prior to his arriving. He just talked to the administrator after the fact."

Grindall said Sirois stayed to hear school administrators discuss the search but the officer took no action on behalf of the Winslow Police Department.

Bruce Smith, a Portland lawyer who represented Winslow High School in the matter, also said he is bound by the agreement not to elaborate further on the incident.

But Smith, who counsels several school systems, did comment on school strip search policies in general.

"I guess it is fair to say that in my experience schools generally do not permit them," Smith said, "and, again, it is a question of a school policy."

Smith stressed that a school policy that prohibits strip searches of students does not prevent police from conducting such investigations.

"This policy has no effect on the police," he said. "The police can conduct searches themselves as they deem appropriate based on their own guidelines."

In Winslow, however, police refrain from strip searches, Grindall said.

"We don't do strip searches on our own arrests," he said.

Winslow School Committee Chairman Ronald Whary, a former Winslow police chief, said school administrators informed the school board of the strip search of the student. But he said the board had little involvement in the matter.

Instead, he said, Superintendent Miller, Carville and the school department's attorney handled the issue.

"It wasn't a strip search in the true sense of a strip search," he said. "It was a very minor intrusion."

Whary said in a true strip search police would have the suspect take off all clothes and submit to having his or her body cavities examined.

Smith, the school attorney, said his professional recommendation is that schools are better off letting police handle strip searches of students.

"Schools have a different relationship with students than police do," he said, "and in our experience schools do not engage in searches that involve removal of clothes."

Efforts to get official copies of Winslow High School's policy on student searches before and after the agreement proved unsuccessful Thursday.

But a policy on the School Union 52 Web site -- Winslow is a member of Union 52 -- concerning "searches of students and/or personal property in students' immediate possession" states:

"Searches should be reasonably related to the suspected violation and no more intrusive than necessary to discover the evidence for which the search was instigated. Searches may include the student's outer clothing (e.g., pockets, jacket, shoes, hat) and personal belongings (e.g., purse, backpack, gym bag, lunch bag). If the search discloses evidence, a broader search may be justified."

Colin Hickey -- 861-9205

chickey@centralmaine.com

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