alleged strip search of 4 black students to be investigated

If you’re anything like us, you were horrified to hear about the alleged strip searching of four Black female students at an upstate New York school earlier this month. At the time, students told their parents that they were questioned and forced to disrobe by the assistant principal and school nurse on drug possession suspicions because the girls were “giddy” for lunchtime.

This week, the school district announced that it had hired an independent firm to investigate the incident and review the claims made by the students and their families. On Wednesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo also spoke on the incident: “The allegations that 12-year-old girls were strip-searched for drugs after being perceived as ‘hyper and giddy’ at a Binghamton middle school are deeply disturbing and raise serious concerns of racial and gender bias,” Cuomo said in a statement.

Pre-teens feeling “giddy” around lunchtime seems pretty standard to us. Let us hope that the investigation will hold the adults in the room responsible for their dehumanizing actions.