Kids forced to strip in school bathroom as official looked for vapes, Wisconsin DA says
A superintendent is facing charges after prosecutors say she forced Wisconsin students to strip down to their underwear and kept them confined in a small bathroom to search for vape pens.
Kelly Casper, the superintendent of Suring Public Schools, has been charged with six counts of false imprisonment, the district attorney announced in a news release.
Investigators say that Casper, 51, told six high school students to take off their clothes while forcing them to remain in the nurse’s bathroom on Jan. 18 to search for vape pens after allegations that the students vaped in bathrooms, a criminal complaint from the incident said.
“Once the children removed their clothing, any opportunity they had to escape would have subjected them to further shame and embarrassment,” the release said.
Suring High School declined to comment regarding the charges against the superintendent. The school board did not respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News.
One of the students searched said Casper did not believe her when she said she did not have a vape and “threatened to search her,” the complaint said.
The superintendent then told the high school student to take off her clothes while she watched. According to the student, when she refused to take off her pants, the superintendent patted her down and touched her butt, the complaint said.
When the student bent down, an empty vape cartridge fell out of her bra, the complaint said. The superintendent then put her in a “time out” for the rest of the day.
Five other students had similar stories from that day, the complaint said. Casper searched them all for vape pens and forced them all to strip down to their bras and underwear, prosecutors said, and asked them to “lift up” bras so the superintendent could check for hidden vapes and cartridges.
While being questioned by investigators, a student said she felt “violated” during these searches, the complaint said. Another student admitted to vaping but was still searched.
“One of these students had given them their e-cigarette. They still went through with strip searches down to their underwear and bra,” Jeff Olson, a civil rights lawyer retained by some of the parents, told WBAY. “I think that’s bound to be a highly traumatic experience for young teenage girls.”
According to the school nurse, who was present for the searches, the superintendent told the girls that they were “’better than this’, they were ‘making bad choices’ telling each one of the girls she ‘really cared about them’ and their future. Superintendent Casper would tell them she did not want to be searching them,” the complaint said.
After the investigation, the district attorney’s office decided to pursue charges relating to the confinement of the students, rather than the searches.
“Kelly Casper lacked legal authority to confine the students in a small restroom located off the nurses office located in the Suring School Public School complex,” District Attorney Edward Burke said in the release. “The facts and surrounding circumstances leads the State to conclude that the children involved did not consent to being confined.”
According to Burke, the children were never given the opportunity to leave the small room or contact their parents.
Suring is about 50 miles northwest of Green Bay.
