A mother has filed a lawsuit against an Ohio school district after the school nurse’s aide allegedly strip-searched her 8th-grade daughter.
The mother filed a federal lawsuit against the Willoughby-Eastlake Schools Board of Education and three Eastlake School Middle School employees on December 28.
The incident allegedly took place on September 27, when the Eastlake Middle student was asked by another student to put a vape pen in her gym locker. The lawsuit says that the student “begrudgingly agreed.”
ABC News reports, “Just before lunch the same day, the school’s principal Colleen Blaurock pulled the eighth grader out of class and questioned her about the vape pen, according to the lawsuit.”
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The student reportedly told the principal what happened but said that “the vape pen was not hers, that she did not have the vape pen and that she did not know where the vape pen was.”
At this point the student’s gym locker and hallway locker were searched, but the vape pen was not found.
“Then, the lawsuit says the teen was taken to the nurse’s office,” the report continues. “There, a nurse’s aide Rosalyn Rubertino allegedly forced the middle schooler to strip down to only her underwear after the middle school’s assigned nurse Megan Kuhlman — who was not present at the time — allegedly instructed her to do so over the phone.”
The vape was not on the student, but both girls were suspended.
The plaintiff’s lawyer Jared Klebanow has argued that the school violated the child’s constitutional rights, failed to train school employees, and intentionally inflicted emotional distress.
“A lot of people might say it was one day, move on. But this is an impressionable teenaged girl, and you can imagine the range of emotions. You have fear, humiliation, right?” Klebanow said. “It’s embarrassing she had to go through this and be all but naked in front of a stranger.”