WORTH COUNTY, GA — Parents are outraged after finding out that the Worth County Sheriff’s Office conducted a search on as many as 900 children in school.
The search is alleged to have been illegal, but the cops are saying that it was done to find drugs.
The searches included patdowns of the children and drug sniffing dogs.
No drugs were found.
On April 14 children showed up to school only to find that police forced every single one of them to endure the searches.
“It’s essentially a fourth amendment violation,” said attorney Mark Begnaud. “It’s 900 illegal searches, suspicion-less pat downs, suspicion-less searches.”
The children returned home and notified their parents about the ordeal, and that is when parents became furious, alleging that the massive search violated their children’s rights and that it was unjustified.
Tommy Coleman, an attorney for Worth County Schools, says that in order for the search to be justified, the Sheriff’s office would have to have reason to believe that there was criminal activity occurring or that the students were in possession of drugs or contraband.
“If you don’t have that then this search would violate an individual’s rights. [It] violates the constitutional right and enforcing them the right against unreasonable search and seizures,” he said.
“I’m okay with them doing the search, if it was done appropriately like the school has done in the past,” said father of two Jonathan Luke. “But when they put their hands on my son, that’s crossing the line.”
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