Let’s cut to the chase here. This touchy issue recently came up in a discussion with a parent who said that while she would never allow this to happen to her child, she was skeptical of the veracity of the numerous reports from around the country.
Children do not expect to go to school and be forced to have a stranger performing genital exams on them. This is the kind of stuff that gives children, and parents, nightmares.
But apparently it is still happening.
Buffalo, NY – Edie Harris has a daughter at Bennett High, who plays sports. Harris says last month her daughter was called down to the office for a physical exam, which are called tanner exams — an assessment Harris approved, but says she was never invited to.
“Then she [the nurse] told her I want you to pull your pants down, so I can check your pubic hair, my daughter said excuse me,” Harris said.
You may remember the famous case in East Stroudsburg Area School District in Pennsylvania in 1996 where girls as young as 11 were forced to be examined. Some tried to escape through windows, others begged to called their parents, and many have been scarred for life.
In March, 1996, Susie, who was then 11, and 57 other sixth-grade girls were herded to the nurse’s room and told to partially undress. Though many of the girls protested, the school was adamant: The girls should bend and compromise and submit to a physical exam. What happened that day in a public school in Pennsylvania is now reverberating throughout the country.
When Susie was called to the nurse’s room, she wasn’t particularly worried. Upon reaching the room, she found that many of her classmates had also been called. When they were told to undress, some of the girls did not want to stay, but a nurse in the waiting room blocked the door.
Inside the examining room, the girls were forced, one by one, to undergo a genital examination for which they had no prior warning. Susie cried. She asked permission to call her parents. So did others. But their pleas were refused.
Read more here… and here and here.
Interesting to note, the East Stroudsberg case happened under Goals 2000.
And yet another case here involving a 9-year old boy.
When will we stop allowing the public schools to abuse our children mentally, emotionally, and physically?