Sheriff Sued for Searching 900 Students at Georgia High School

A federal class action suit has been filed alleging that Worth County (Ga.) Sheriff’s Office employees conducted a suspicionless search of 900 students at Worth County High School on April 14, 2017. Acting on information that a "target list" of thirteen students at the high school possessed drugs, Worth Co. Sheriff John Hobby placed the high school on "lockdown" for four hours while deputies conducted body searches, including feeling inside students' clothing and underwear. Although only three of the students on the target list were at school the day of the search and those students were brought to the administrative offices upon the Sheriff's arrival, the sheriffs searched all students, had dogs sniff their cars and belongings, and temporarily seized their cellphones during the four-hour search. Several students alleged that the deputies touched the students' genitalia while they were being searched. No illegal controlled substances or drug paraphernalia were discovered during the mass search. Apparently, neither the school administrators nor the assigned school resource officer (who was away from the school at the time of the search) knew of or agreed to the search. The plaintiffs allege that the Sheriff violated clearly established law by conducted a mass, physically intrusive searches without individualized suspicion. Crystal Redd, an attorney at the Southern Center for Human Rights said in a statement, “[The student-plaintiff] is going to court to hold the Sheriff accountable for treating public school children like suspected criminals.”A copy of the complaint, K.A. v. Hobby (M.D. Ga., filed Jun. 1, 2017) filed by the Southern Center for Human Rights is here.