Wisconsin Lawmakers Working to Advance a Bill Expanding the Definition of an Illegal Strip Search of a Student

Saturday, July 22nd, 2023 -- 10:00 AM

(By Gaby Vinick, Wisconsin Public Radio) Wisconsin lawmakers are working to advance a bill that would expand the definition of an illegal strip search of a student.  

The legislation is in response to an incident in January 2022 at a northeast Wisconsin school in Oconto County. Former Suring Public Schools superintendent Kelly Casper confined six students to a restroom off the school nurse’s office to be searched for nicotine vapes, according to the district attorney's office.

The families hired a civil rights attorney who filed a notice of claim with the school, but as of March, a lawsuit was not filed. Charges of false imprisonment were filed in March 2022. A press release from the Oconto County district attorney's office said Casper lacked legal authority to confine the girls in the bathroom without their consent during the search.

Those charges were dismissed by a circuit court judge in June 2022. Casper resigned later that month.  Under current law, it's a Class B misdemeanor for a school employee to strip search a student, but the definition of that search is limited to exposing or touching private areas including genitals, buttocks or breasts.

This bill would expand that to include a search of a person still wearing undergarments. State Rep. David Steffen, R-Green Bay, is an author of the bill. At a public hearing of the state Assembly Committee on Education Thursday, he said the legislation would protect children in the future. He praised the Surling School District's response to the incident but said the state has hundreds of other districts.

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