An abhorrent practice exposed

Find these editorials and more on The Inquirer Editorial Board's new blog, "Say What?" (http://go.philly.com/saywhat).

An abhorrent practice exposed

School officials across the nation can take the summer to consider the policy changes they need to make in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling banning the strip search of a 13-year-old Arizona girl suspected of hiding pain-relief pills.

But this isn't like studying for the SAT, much less trying to grasp the science of rocketry.

The high court said that then-middle school student Savana Redding's search was unreasonable and unconstitutional. It doesn't take a Ph.D., though, for educators to realize that the indignity of such a strip search in a supposed learning setting was outrageous as well.

The take-away lesson from the ruling is that a school is not a county jail. Even amid the understandable zeal to rid schools of drugs, the practice of forcing students to undress to be searched ought to be banned altogether.

That's already the policy under a statewide ban on strip searches in New Jersey schools, as well as in some Pennsylvania districts, including Philadelphia and Upper Darby.

But extending those bans is anything but a sure thing, despite the court ruling. That's because the justices chose not to rule against all student searches. Indeed, the 8-1 majority left the door open to strip searches as long as schools balance "the degree of intrusion" against the threat of suspected hidden drugs.

As the court noted, there's nothing unreasonable about a pat-down or search of a backpack if school officials have sufficient suspicion about hidden drugs or a weapon. Such tactics can keep schools safer.

Rather than resort to strip searches, though, school officials could choose to alert parents and then send a student home, or find less intrusive ways to monitor someone under suspicion.

By setting new limits on these searches, the Supreme Court has provided the catalyst for soul-searching in school districts that still utilize this abhorrent tactic.

Is stupidity a crime?

A Montgomery County swim club accused of discriminating against a group of minority children from the city should take the advice of Sen. Arlen Specter and let the kids come back to the pool.

Two weeks ago, 65 black and Hispanic children from North Philadelphia's Creative Steps Inc. camp made their first visit to the Valley Club in Huntingdon Valley. Some children said they heard club members make racial remarks while escorting their own children away. Four days later, the club refunded a $1,950 check and terminated the agreement allowing the Creative Steps children to swim there.

The club issued a statement on its Web site saying the campers were turned away because they overwhelmed the 110,000-gallon pool, and not because of racism. It's hard to believe club officials didn't consider the pool's capacity when they signed the contract. Then there's club president John Duesler's remark to a TV reporter: "There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club." Was that some kind of Freudian slip?

The state Human Relations Commission is investigating the incident. But the Valley Club could take matters into its own hands by honoring its commitment to let the Creative Steps kids swim. Perhaps they can work out a better schedule, so the club's members aren't too inconvenienced. That is, unless the club wants the accusations of racism to stand.

Summer is a good time to learn

Nearly 40,000 Philadelphia public-school students are spending part of their summer exactly where they need to be — in the classroom. Summer school recently began at 132 sites across the city, with double the number of students enrolled last year. That probably still falls short of the need in a city with a failing school system. But it's a good start.

Struggling students are getting needed remedial help to bring them up to grade-level for the next school year. There are also enrichment activities for K through 8 students, such as field trips and technology camps — an excellent way to keep idle minds active and minimize the learning loss that affects many youngsters when they're out of school.

Unlike other cash-strapped districts, Philadelphia was able to use funds from the federal stimulus program to pay for the $30 million summer program. With its first balanced budget since 2006, the district made a prudent investment to expand summer school and give the 22-day program a new look — and a climate change, with many classrooms air-conditioned for the first time.

Critics say the accelerated courses offered in the summer are too short to provide meaningful learning. But at least they help some in a district with a 50 percent dropout rate and more than half of all students scoring below grade level in math and reading.

The bulk of the this year's summer-school students — roughly 31,000 — are repeating courses that they failed, or need more help. Also new this summer is a bridge program to help about 1,000 eighth graders make a smooth transition to high school. Students who pass ninth grade the first time are more likely to stay in school. It's all good. The end of the school year shouldn't mean the end of learning. Summer is a great opportunity to engage young minds.

Computer evaluations of parolees

Philadelphia is experimenting with a computer program designed to evaluate prison parolees' backgrounds to make sure those most likely to commit another violent crime get the most attention.

If this new technology can make the city safer, go for it. It sounds like the type of work that mere humans should be able to handle. But no doubt the computer can do it faster, and more efficiently.

The city's Adult Probation and Parole Department is entering each parolee's name into a computer that searches a database for information on that person, and then ranks his risk of committing a violent crime as high, medium, or low.

Rather than using a formula, the computer has [ITALIC]learned[/ITALIC] how to make that assessment based on its review of data on other past parolees and their subsequent crimes. Of course, rating these probabilities alone isn't going to prevent crime. Once the likely recidivists are identified, they will need not only closer monitoring but also intervention to help them stay out of trouble.

As a bonus, the new computer program has allowed the department to increase parole officers' workloads, by giving some of them more low-risk parolees who shouldn't require as much attention.

That's one way to compensate for the lack ofadditional parole officers that the department really needs. But it risks not giving enough attention to low-risk parolees who could end up in more trouble, too, without the right supervision.

Technology is great, but it can't always compensate for good old-fashioned manpower.