Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin are trying to ban strip searches in schools after a school superintendent told six female students to remove their clothing during a search for vaping devices last year.
Prosecutors charged then-Superintendent Kelly Casper, who oversaw the Suring school system outside Green Bay, with six counts of false imprisonment in February 2022 after she took six female students into a bathroom and told them to disrobe so she could search for vaping materials.
The girls, who were ages 14 to 17, stripped to their underwear, and the search netted two vape cartridges. Another student admitted having a vape on her, the Green Bay Press-Gazette, a member of the USA TODAY Network, reported earlier.
A bill co-written and introduced Monday by three state legislators – Rep. Elijah Behnke, Rep. David Steffen and Sen. Eric Wimberger – seeks to expand the definition of a “strip search” to include having students take off their clothing down to their underwear.
Current state law defines a strip search as a search in which a person’s genitals or private areas are exposed to view or touched by the searcher.
Any school district employee who strip-searches a student is guilty of a misdemeanor. But Oconto County District Edward Burke said the searches last year didn’t violate state law because the students were in their underwear.
The new law would define a strip search as one in which a person’s genitalia or private areas, or underwear-clad genitalia or private areas, are exposed or touched by the searcher.
“This is a common-sense bill that will help protect every student’s dignity while in school,” Behnke said in a statement. “I look forward to getting it passed through the legislature and signed into law.”
Casper’s actions led to her resignation in June, and that same month, a judge dismissed the six counts of false imprisonment against her, finding insufficient evidence for those charges.
“The allegations surrounding this incident are a clear violation of basic privacy expectations, and the fact that this involves minors is even more concerning,” Steffen said. “We have joined with parents in demanding that these types of strip searches performed by teachers or school staff never happen again in Wisconsin.”
The bill introduced Monday was seeking co-sponsors and was set to be sent to a legislative committee for a public hearing.
Contributing: The Associated Press. Danielle DuClos is a Report for America corps member who covers K-12 education for the Green Bay Press-Gazette, a member of the USA TODAY Network.