- UPDATE
- High School Official Suspended Over Underwear
Inspection
-
- By Eleanor Yang
Staff Writer
San Diego Union-Tribune
5-2-2
-
- RANCHO BERNARDO -
A high school assistant principal accused of asking students to show their
underwear before entering a dance was placed on administrative leave today
after district officials had weighed the "severity of the allegations
and concerns of those involved."
-
- Dozens of infuriated parents and students have demanded
that the administrater, Rita Wilson, be fired, saying she violated students'
rights by forcing girls and boys attending a dance to lift their clothing
and expose their undergarments. The reason for the check, the district
said, was to "ensure appropriate school dress."
-
- Several girls attending the dance Friday said they were
asked if they were wearing thong underwear, and told to go home and change
if they were. Female and male students complained of having to lift their
clothing and expose their undergarments to Assistant Principal Rita Wilson
and counselor Natalie Johnson outside the gym while their peers watched.
The reason, the district said, was "to ensure appropriate school dress."
-
- "It was a violation of these kids' privacy, and
very embarrassing for kids at that age," said Cindy Chappell, whose
16-year-old daughter complained that her bra was exposed while Wilson examined
her tube top.
-
- The student said she was asked whether the tube top was
attached to her bra. After answering, the student said, Wilson grabbed
her tube top and yanked it down, exposing most of her bra.
-
- "I felt embarrassed because there were about 50
people standing around," Chappell's daughter said. "I didn't
think I had done anything wrong."
-
- San Diego city police Officer Greg Bisesto said that
while patrolling the dance, which was attended by about 725 students, he
watched Wilson force dozens of girls to lift their skirts. He said he heard
Wilson ask the questions: "Are you wearing underwear? If so, is it
a thong? . . . Then let me check."
-
- "I just thought, 'Oh, my God, what is she doing?'
" Bisesto said. "This is totally out of line."
-
- Parents have been told that part of the motivation for
the inspections was an incident involving partial nudity at the dance last
year. The dance, called "MORP" - "prom" spelled backward
- is the only informal dance at the school and is considered the wildest
of the year, students said.
-
- Students typically dress in costume to fit a theme, which
this year was "Blast From the Past." Last year, some students
wore loincloths for the "Jungle Fever" theme. Things got out
of hand, students and parents said, and one girl took off her underwear
and revealed herself on the dance floor.
-
- While not condoning Wilson's alleged actions, school
board President Penny Ranftle said: "I suspect the intent was to make
sure students were more protected, in terms of being covered. But having
said that, I don't think it's appropriate to ask what kind of underwear
a student is wearing."
-
- Jordan Budd, legal director at the American Civil Liberties
Union for San Diego and Imperial counties, said that if the description
of the night's events provided by students is accurate, "it plainly
violates the privacy rights of girls and boys subjected to the searches."
-
- Some parents have threatened to file invasion-of-privacy
and sexual-harassment lawsuits against the school. Parent Alane Barnes
Garvik said she will not be satisfied until Wilson and Johnson are removed.
-
- "Those two need to be gone," said Garvik, whose
daughter was asked if she was wearing a thong. "That's the only acceptable
consequence. These people, as far as I'm concerned, need to be classified
as sex offenders."
-
- Garvik's sophomore daughter was forced to go home and
change before she could enter the dance, although thongs are not barred
in the school dress code. The code states that undergarments, including
"boxers, tank-top undershirts or underwear" should not be exposed.
-
- "I felt like they were really touching a private
area," the 16-year-old said. "I didn't think they had a right
to know that stuff."
-
- Other students who asked not to be identified because
they feared retaliation at school said they encountered similar treatment
at the costume dance.
-
- One 17-year-old junior said he had to lift the toga he
was wearing and show the shorts he had on underneath.
-
- "She said, 'What's under your toga?' " the
student said. Johnson, the counselor, did not seem satisfied until the
student raised it, he said.
-
- During the dance, at least two people tried to stop Wilson's
examinations.
-
- Bisesto, the police officer, said he approached Assistant
Principal Michael Mosgrove and asked him to talk to Wilson about her behavior.
Bisesto said he does not know if Mosgrove spoke with Wilson, but he said
the examinations did not stop.
-
- A member of the school's student government, Michael
Barber, said he approached a teacher at the dance, asking him to talk to
Wilson, but the teacher declined.
-
- "Teachers were our only line of defense, and when
we tried to say something, nothing was taken seriously," said Barber,
a senior.
-
- Wilson, who has been working in the district since 1995,
was described by students as a strict administrator who is known for enforcing
the rules. As one of four assistant principals at the 3,166-student school,
she oversees some disciplinary issues and organizes school events.
-
- The district hopes to complete its investigation within
a week or two, said district Communications Director Sharon Raffer.
-
- "We are taking this seriously and want to ensure
that any actions to be taken are based upon the facts of the situation,"
Superintendent Don Phillips said in a written statement.
-
- http://www.uniontribune.com/news/northcounty/20020501--n75890.html
-
-
- ---
-
-
- LOS ANGELES (Reuters)
- Angry parents demanded the resignation of a California high school vice
principal on Tuesday after she lifted the skirts of teenage girls at a
dance to make sure they were wearing "appropriate" underwear.
-
- Parents at Rancho Bernardo High School in suburban San
Diego say the vice principal, Rita Wilson, made the girls prove that they
were not wearing skimpy thong panties before they were allowed into the
dance on Friday.
-
- In some cases, said Rancho Bernardo parent Kim Teal,
girls also were made to partially undress if Wilson or another teacher
suspected that they weren't wearing bras.
-
- "These girls feel violated," said Teal, whose
daughter Rebecca, a sophomore, was asked about her panties but escaped
a search after telling Wilson that she was not wearing a thong.
-
- "One girl just cried after having to tell her father
this story, she was hiding her head in a sweatshirt," Teal said, adding
that the girls had their skirts lifted in front of men and their male classmates.
-
- "After a while the girls finally got the idea that
they shouldn't say 'thong' when they were asked, even though that's all
they wear now. They won't be caught dead in the locker room wearing regular
underwear," she said.
-
- Wilson and Paul Gentle, Rancho Bernardo's principal,
were unavailable for comment on the skirt-lifting.
-
- Don Phillips, superintendent of the Poway Unified School
District, said students, staff and others were being interviewed to determine
what happened at the dance, which he said was attended by about 725 pupils.
-
- "The principal is talking with the parents involved,"
he said. "We are taking this seriously and want to ensure that any
actions to be taken are based on the facts of the situation."
-
- Teal, a 43-year-old attorney, said she learned about
the skirt-lifting from her daughter, whose friends were forced to show
their panties in front of boys, teachers and police officers standing at
the door.
-
- She said most of the girls who wore skirts or dresses
to the dance, which had a "blast from the past" theme, reported
being grilled about their underwear or forced to show them to Wilson or
another teacher.
-
- Teachers also checked several boys who were wearing togas,
Teal said, and some girls were asked about their bras.
-
- "I just got a call from one mom who said her daughter
was wearing a poodle skirt and an off-the-shoulder top and a teacher reached
right out and grabbed the front of it and pulled it down to check,"
Teal said.
-
- Teal said she and other parents would demand the resignation
of Wilson and any other teachers involved and would also consider filing
a lawsuit against the school district for violating the civil rights of
their daughters.
-
- Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly
prohibited without the written consent of Reuters Limited
-
-
- Comment
- From Robert Parland
5-1-2
-
- What a putrid testimonial to a dying culture. God forbid
these parents force their daugthers to stop dressing like Hollywood film
whores and rock star sex dirtbags. Oh, no, we can't do that. (Most of the
mothers probably wear hooker underwear themselves and think it really cooool
that their little jailbait daughters dress like streetwalkers, too.) Gollleee,
I forgot, civil rights! Even teen hookers-in-training must be accorded
their 'freedom of expression'... don't even THINK about controlling those
teenage whore-moans! Bless the school Vice-Principal who gave it a good
try...only to be overwhelmed by the mind-controlled consumer droids and
morons which represent the majority of this 'society'. Yep, according to
health statistics, most of those little sweet tarts have no trouble slipping
out of their underwear in the wink of an eye no matter which style they
may wear...the national epidemic of sexually-transmitted diseases proves
it. Imagine your little girl with oral gonorrhea and HPV venereal warts
at the age of 15. Ah...but she sure is cool...bra-less and wearing those
thong undies.
-
-
- Comment
Anita Grisolm
5-1-2
-
- Gosh, Robert!
- What put a burr up your butt?
- The very fact that it's "underwear" makes it
a private, "non-public" matter. What are these girls expressing
with their "freedom of expression"? (or more to the point....just
what are these "parental figure-heads" doing looking up girl's
dresses?? What are THEY "expressing"?) At the next dance, will
the requirement be a strip search? (in a private back room?) You have the
nerve to claim moral outrage.....and yet label people you know nothing
about as "teenage whores" "hookers in training" "jail-bait"
and "sweet tarts"-- your own "terminology" condems
you. Shame on you, Mr. Parland.
Comment
Alton Raines
5-1-2
What anyone wears beneath their clothing is as sacred and private as their
bodies themselves, and no one has the right to "inspect" or level
any form of UNDER-dress code on students. French Cut underwear was at one
time the great "whorer" which sent mindless parents and moralists
up the walls in the late 50s. Then the Bikini cut. It was to make whores
out of all of them. Pfft! What nonsense. Once again, certain people's minds
are not where they should be... too busy slinking under the dresses of
females.. guised as concerned parents or the voice of moral sanity; morality
police is more like it, as if we need such a thing.
When will the world learn where the real perverts are hiding? Right out
in the open, in positions of authority, pushing their twisted view of morality
on others, even granting themselves access to the most private of places.
Oh, and Mr. Parland, my 16 year old does wear thong underwear, and if she
wanted to wear black leather ones under her clothes -- by the way, where
your rights end and hers begin, and where your mind and concerns should
never be -- I wouldn't give a flip. That's her personal PRIVATE decision.
Underwear styles no more make girls into "whores" than did the
bikini turn the beaches into an orgy! It has nothing to do with "civil
rights" you knuckle-dragging throwback -- it's called personal privacy!
Or shall we sneak a peak in YOUR little world and private affairs?
You wouldn't like that, would you?
-
-
-
- Comment
-
- From kh6
5-4-2
-
- You know, adult perverts sneaking a peek our children's
undergarments are not the biggest threat to our civilization. Indeed,
we've had preists and rabbis molesting our children for years -- why only
recently the outcry?
-
- We need to totally overhaul our civilization, but this
cannot occur until we regain control of our news media, the entertainment
industry and our government. Sexually-transmitted diseases, leather underwear
and "hookers-in-training" are only symptoms of our "dying
culture."
-
- The more dire ills that need to be stomped out now are
every-man-for-himself libertarianism, do-it-if-it-feels-good rationalism
and the granting of "civil rights" to all featherless bipeds
who managed to hop the fence into this country.
-
- The challenge that lies ahead will be to wrestle our
nation and our civilization from those who are destroying us. After we
regain control of our destiny, we will be able to straighten out our childrens'
thinking... so they will have enough self-respect and pride knocked into
them such that a strip search like the one that occured at the Rancho Bernardo
school will be relegated to the Third World.
|
