Photo: Suring Public Schools
A Wisconsin superintendent is facing numerous charges after she allegedly forced several female students to strip down to their underwear so she could search them for vape cartridges. Authorities said that Kelly Casper, 51, of the Suring Public School District, forced six students into a small bathroom in the nurse's office and told them to remove their clothing while she stood in the doorway.
Oconto County District Attorney Edward Burke, Jr. said that an investigation revealed that Casper was not authorized to confine the students in the bathroom and did not provide them with the option to leave or contact their parents.
"Once the children removed their clothing, any opportunity they had to escape would have subjected them to further shame and embarrassment," Burke said in a press release.
"The only choice they were given was to have the search conducted by a police officer or Casper," he added.
According to the Green Bay Press-Gazette, Casper found a vape cartridge after it fell out of the bra of the first student she checked. In subsequent searches, she allegedly checked the other girls' bras more carefully, with one student claiming her breasts were fully exposed during the examination.
One of the girls told officers that "she felt violated and that the school should have no right to search students the way they had with her."
Casper was charged with six counts of false imprisonment. Each count carries a maximum sentence of six years behind bars and a $10,000 fine.
The parents of the students are relieved that Casper is being held accountable for her actions.
"I feel a lot of relief that something is being done, so we're not setting an example in our little village of Suring for schools across the state of Wisconsin to be able to allow these types of things to happen to our students," a mother of one of the girls told WBAY.