{"id":4408,"date":"2023-07-25T05:06:27","date_gmt":"2023-07-25T05:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=4408"},"modified":"2023-07-25T05:59:01","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T05:59:01","slug":"wisconsin-lawmakers-pitch-strip-search-law-overhaul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=4408","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin Lawmakers Pitch Strip Search Law Overhaul"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/wisconsin-lawmakers-pitch-strip-search-law-overhaul\/tcsquare\/2023\/07\/25\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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by Benjamin Yount<\/h5>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A pair of Green Bay-area lawmakers want to rewrite Wisconsin\u2019s strip search law to make it clear that underwear counts too.<\/p>\n

State Rep. David Steffen, R-Green Bay (pictured above, left), and State Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Green Bay (pictured above, right), told an Assembly committee on Thursday that the law needs to be updated after the superintendent in Suring Schools stripped five teenage girls down to their underwear to look for a vape cartridge in January of last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had all of them get down to their skivvies and then manipulate their undergarments in a way that would distance them from their bodies, so that a vape cartridge might then fall to the ground,\u201d Wimberger explained.<\/p>\n

The Oconto County Sheriff\u2019s Office investigated, and the local D.A. brought charges against the superintendent for an unlawful strip search. But because the girls weren\u2019t stripped naked, the case was ultimately dismissed because Wisconsin\u2019s strip search law says someone has to be naked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe administrator made it clear, and this is almost a verbatim quote, she said \u2018I have more power to strip search than law enforcement,\u2019,\u201d Steffen added.<\/p>\n

Steffen and Wimberger want to change the definition of a strip search to add \u201cunderwear clad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the semantic-overload when we were dealing with this problem in northeast Wisconsin is people would say \u2018the administrator conducted a strip search.\u2019 And the school would say \u2018No that didn\u2019t happen. A strip search was not conducted,\u2019\u201d Wimberger explained. \u201cNow we\u2019re talking about a definition, as opposed to a common sense notion of what a [strip search] might be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the superintendent in Suring resigned, but was never convicted or punished for searching the girls. She also didn\u2019t find a vape cartridge.<\/p>\n

Steffen said there was a \u201ccommunity outcry\u201d for lawmakers to do something.<\/p>\n

Steffen and Wimberger\u2019s plan would clarify that violating the expanded stripe search law would be a Class B misdemeanor, that\u2019s punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u2013 \u2013<\/p>\n

Benjamin Yount is a regular contributor to The Center Square<\/a>.
\nPhoto \u201cState Rep. David Steffen\u201d by State Rep. David Steffen<\/a> and \u201cState Sen. Eric Wimberger\u201d is by State Sen. Eric Wimberger<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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The post Wisconsin Lawmakers Pitch Strip Search Law Overhaul<\/a> appeared first on The Wisconsin Daily Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/wisconsin-lawmakers-pitch-strip-search-law-overhaul\/tcsquare\/2023\/07\/25\/ by Benjamin Yount \u00a0 A pair of Green Bay-area…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-daily-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4409,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4408\/revisions\/4409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}