Third Grader Strip Searched At School

A third-grader at a North Carolina elementary school was subjected to a strip search after claims of stealing surfaced in the classroom. A fellow classmate accused Justin Cox of taking $20 from a female student. According to Fox News NY, his mother, Clarinda Cox stated the little girl accidentally dropped the $20 bill and her son picked it up from the floor and returned the cash to its rightful owner.

Union Elementary School in Clinton made national headlines after Cox enlisted the aid of the local television station in righting what she felt was an injustice. Cox stated if the North Carolina elementary school principal had called her, she would have come to the school and searched her son. The female assistant principal, Teresa Holmes strip searched the third grade student in a private room. After discovering Cox did not have the missing $20 tucked away somewhere on his body, she gave the student a hug. The money was later found near where it was initially lost, under a cafeteria table where the girl had been seated.

Although Sampson County Schools representative Susan Warren stated the boy’s mother should have been “informed about the search” the school district feels the assistant principal did “nothing wrong” because a male janitor was present during the child’s strip search, according to Fox News NY. During an interview with local WRAL News, Warren stated the school administrator’s action may have been “overzealous” but not illegal.

The third-grader’s mother is not satisfied with the North Carolina school district’s response and feels her son was violated during the strip search, according to her statements to WRAL News. Cox stated the assistant principal “rubbed her fingers around the inside of his underwear.” The mother concluded that if such behavior is not “excessively intrusive she does not know what is.”