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An update to this story appears in The Washington Post. A second group consisting of 18 girls took a separate tour, and at least one of them claims to have been strip-searched like the boys were. Also:
* The principal (female) and two teachers (male and female) from the school have been placed on administrative leave pending investigation
* The warden of the jail (female) and two officers (male) have been fired for failing to investigate the incident.
One of the fired officers says, "We don't want to harm these kids. We just want to show them tough love." Heh. If a parent--especially a father--did this, it would be called abuse. In my mind, that's exactly what it is.
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And one more, which sheds a little more light on the firings and the other incidents.
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The gruesome details of the strip-search, including:
* Nine of 12 boys visiting the jail were forced to disrobe and, at one point, forced to "open their mouths and bend over."
* The boys were also verbally threatened if they didn't remove their clothes. "Yelling and cussing," is the way one child described it.
If you search for the term "strip-search" on http://www.washingtonpost.com, you'll find all the related stories. I've had all I can take, so this is the last one I will post.
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More jail officials have been disciplined because of this incident. Details here.
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What on earth were those jailworkers thinking? Sure they're little boys...but did they have to strip them naked as rape-meat? As far as the boy-hating American populous is concerned, This move that they did was just SO DAMN SICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I'm sure I'm going to get a lot of disagreement about this, but I'm going to play devil's advocate here.
Before I start, I'd like to state that I'm glad that this practice has been stopped. Not because of what happened to the particular boys (and girl) targeted, but because if it were to continue it would inevitably lead to abuses. So, I'm not gung-ho in favour of having prison workers strip-searching school kids.
That said, some things that struck me as I read these stories:
1. It wasn't just boys strip-searched, although they were the majority.
2. By all accounts the kids brought on these particular tours were there because they were little tough kids who thought they were cool and were one step away from ending up in some prison with a record.
3. The intent was to smarten them up.
4. At least one parent is wailing about the terrible effect this had on her daughter and how she isn't the sweet little carefree kid she used to be.
5. Some of the girls saw "prisoners masturbating".
One part of me finds all of this outrageous. However, the other part of me sees the point: you have a bunch of kids who think they're cool little gang-bangers, tough kids who are going to take on the world with their attitude and their fists. How do you smarten them up? Send them home to daddy and mommy, who think that their little darling is a "sweet little run-around kid"? Keep them after school (if they show up)? Or maybe, as a last resort, haul them into a prison and have them endure humiliation. The message: this is where you're headed, kid. If you don't like it then wake up and smell the coffee.
I'm not so old that I don't remember school. I haven't forgotten the "tough kids" who thought they were so cool, beating on the rest of us and swaggering down the halls like they owned the place. At the time, being a kid, I would have given my last nickel to have these assholes go through what these kids went through.
The girls saw prisoners masturbating? Well, if they were sweet little Ellie and Mary from the honours class I might object, but remember that all of these kids were on these tours because supposedly they thought they were tough as nails. Surprise, kid: you're not. From this angle my reaction is, "Gee, ain't that sad."
As I said, though, I'm glad that the whole thing was shut down. The problem with this sort of "tough love" is that it starts of being used in the worst situations--where it is (arguably) warranted--and then gradually degrades into gratuitous abuse. Although, as I said, I have known kids who deserved exactly what these kids got, on the other hand I don't trust teachers to be perfectly fair and objective about dishing out this sort of thing, and I don't trust corrections officials to be the same. It was only a matter of time before this became "fun" for the teachers or the jail staff and so turned a metaphorical kick in the ass for those who may need it into pure sexual abuse.
Anyway, I'll duck back behind my sandbags now....
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I'm not going to attack you for your opinion on this, BusterB. I think "tough love" is sometimes necessary for those who just can't learn any other way. However, I think these kids would've gotten the picture without being strip-searched (and without being forced to watch as an actual inmate was strip-searched). I visited a jail as part of a student tour group when I was in high school. We weren't strip-searched, but we did have to go through the "shakedown." I can tell you that the place made quite an impression on me just walking through it, and I wasn't really the best apple in the bushel.
See? No sandbags necessary. :)
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The Post ran this follow-up article today about using scare tactics to frighten children into good behavior. The article stems from the May 17 strip-search incident.
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