Five students strip-searched

Two staff members of the Atlantic Community School District will be disciplined for their roles in an alleged illegal strip-search of five female high school students, Superintendent Dan Crozier said Tuesday.

The move comes after the school district completed an internal investigation into the Aug. 21 incident, in which five girls were asked to disrobe or partially remove their clothing in the presence of a guidance counselor. The counselor was searching for money reported stolen by another student.

Crozier did not name the staff members or specify the disciplinary measures, but he said it involves the two staff members who were involved in the search.

Assistant Principal Paul Croghan ordered the search of students, which was carried out by guidance counselor Heather Turpen. Both were named in a report released this week by the district.

Discipline could include an array of actions, said Crozier, including a change of duties or suspension. Both Croghan and Turpen are still employed by the district, the superintendent said. The school board determines disciplinary measures.

The report released this week detailed interviews with students and staff members involved in the incident.

According to the report, a student left her purse on a bench in the girls locker room while she and other students waited in line for padlocks. When she returned, she said, her wallet was outside her purse and $100 was missing.

The girl said she ran a few laps in gym class before telling the teacher she was sick. She then told her mother, who is an English teacher at the high school, about the missing money.

Her mother reported the theft to the gym teacher, who sent the girl to get Croghan, the assistant principal. Croghan asked the girl to find Turpen, the guidance counselor.

At Turpen's request, the girl accompanied the counselor as she searched the other students in an adjoining locker room. Several girls, who were searched one by one, said Turpen apologized repeatedly while performing the searches, according to the report.

One girl said she lifted her shirt and showed Turpen the waistband of her underwear and shorts. A second student stripped to her bra and underwear before being told that she could leave.

The second student was called back after Croghan instructed Turpen to search the students' bras. The second student was then asked to take off her bra.

A third student took off her shirt, lifted her bra, and rolled down the waistband of her jeans and underwear, the report said.

A fourth girl took off her shirt, jeans, shoes and socks, then walked behind the lockers, took off her bra and showed it to Turpen.

The fifth student stripped off all her clothes.

No money was found in the searches.

During the investigation into the searches, Croghan said that he did not give Turpen explicit instructions but that his intent was for the guidance counselor to visually search and pat down the girls, not for the students to disrobe.

Turpen is a new employee. According to the report, she said she was four feet away from the students when they were being searched, and she did not touch them.

Iowa law prohibits strip searches of students but does not define what a strip search is.

Matt Hudson, a Harlan lawyer who represents one of the girls, said he hadn't been told of any disciplinary measures. The report issued by the school district did not mention discipline of staff members.

“We were surprised and disappointed that there were no recommendations that any action be taken,” said Hudson.

He said he has asked the school district's attorney for information on what steps the district plans to take next but has not received a response.

Calls to Council Bluffs lawyers Michael Winter and Ed Noethe, who also represent girls who were searched, were not immediately returned Tuesday.

Contact the writer:

444-1310, elizabeth.ahlin@owh.com