Teacher, Principal Get Day Off After Students Strip-Searched
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A school principal and a teacher were ordered to stay home from school Thursday after a class of third-graders were strip-searched when $5 in lunch money went missing.
The money did not turn up in Monday’s search of the 26 students, who are between 8 and 9 years old.
“There was a strip-search. The kids were asked to take off their clothes. The female teacher searched the girls and the male teacher the boys,” Kansas City School District spokesman Edwin Birch said.
Pitcher Elementary School Principal Jana Schwimmer and an unnamed teacher were ordered to stay away from work, though not officially suspended, pending an investigation of the incident, Birch said.
It was not clear why both teachers involved in the search were not kept home.
Under Missouri regulations, schoolchildren can be ordered to empty their pockets but there is no provision for them to be strip-searched.
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