The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 13

The Des Moines Register State Edition Friday, September 11, 2009 Page13A I r- Read more Register columnists and reader blogs Iff at DesMoinesRegister.comopinion. No justification for alleged strip search REKHABASU rbasudmreg.com Even in the ambiguous, self-doubting, early teen-age years, I knew one thing about myself, I knew I would rather have died than have to appear naked in front of my classmates and teachers. Times may have changed along with social and sexual mores, but what remains constant is the need for young women to control who gets access to their intimate body parts. Society has grown to better understand these issues: The risks of being taken advantage of sexually; the defining role that body image plays in forming a sense of self; the eating disorders that can result from poor self-image. Which is why, from preschool on, children are taught to respect their bodies and refuse anyone (even a close family member) access to their private parts if it makes them uncomfortable.

U.S. Supreme Court ruled this very year in favor of an Arizona middle-school girl, then 13, who was ordered to strip down to her underwear and shake out her bra and underpants in a search for prescription-strength ibuprofen. According to accounts in Atlantic, one girl asked if she could lift up her bra and was told that wasn't good enough. One allegedly was searched twice. Remember, there was no allegation of imminent danger no drugs or weapons, no probable cause.

No money turned up. The decision to search apparently was made by a male gym teacher and a male assistant principal, and conducted in front of a female counselor, with the accuser watching giving her unwarranted power over her classmates. The faculty members have denied these were strip searches, according to district Superintendent Dan Crozier. Apparently accepting their word, he last week called them allowable searches under school district policy. But since then, an unidentified school administrator has been put on leave pending an investigation.

Perhaps the superintendent realized he spoke too soon in siding with his staff over students. And then there's school board President Phil Hascall, who dismissed the issue when contacted by the Register last week, saying, "our superintendent handled it," and he had no more questions. Does he not understand his oversight responsibility? Is the board just a rubber stamp for the administrator? Do any of these school officials bother to know the laws? In the Arizona case, nothing was found either, and the former honor student was so humiliated, she later dropped out of school. If that search was abusive, as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said it was, this one sounds five times more so. Strip searches are also against Iowa law.

But laws aside, could $100 ever be more valuable than the girls' rights to physical privacy and presumption of innocence? Parents send their kids to school expecting they'll be safe from coercion, humiliation and unwarranted intrusiveness. If these allegations are true, their own school violated these girls in ways likely to haunt them forever. Then officials compounded the damage by justifying the actions without all the facts. Now, to regain the community's confidence, the district needs to conduct a thorough, transparent investigation, admit to any wrongdoing and take appropriate action. If the facts presented by representatives of five Atlantic High School girls are true, those five were not only unfairly accused but personally violated by school officials who allegedly allowed them to be strip-searched in pursuit of missing money.

The searches took place Aug. 21 after another student reported $100 missing. One 15-year-old allegedly had to take off all her clothes while others were required to strip to differing degrees, such as lifting up their underwear. The Iowa View Building a community, one volunteer project at a time r.v In April, President Barack Obama signed into law the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act that established Sept.

1 1 as an annually recognized National Day of Service and Remembrance. The goal of this law is to inspire individuals, businesses and organizations to voluntarily engage in community RICK TOLLAKSON is president and CEO ofHubbell 1 service, perform good deeds of any nature and participate in other private and organized activities in remem- fijfiS mm-mm mmmm commeraa and residential real estate firm. Contact: rick.tollakson hubbellrealty.com. MV7fcxP -J JOHN GAPS HITHE REGISTER Kejuan Gibson, 14, tries to get high fives Tuesday from sisters Kenya Williams, 13, left, Shiana Gibson, 16, center, andTinesha Gibson, 17, at the 9 Homes in 9 Days project, located at the corner of 21st Street and Forest Avenue in Des Moines. They will be living there with their grandmother when it's complete.

Hundreds of volunteers and builders are involved in the $1 .5 million effort. I Learn more For more information about the National Day of Service and Remembrance, go to http: 91 1 dayofservice.org. brance of the acts of 911. This National Day of Service and Remembrance falls in the middle of one of the most aggressive community projects of 2009: building 9 homes for 9 families in 9 days. In September 2006, the Hubbell organization rallied behind the "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" show and built a home for a Tama County family whose home was destroyed by fire during the Christmas holiday.

That home was built in one week by thousands of volunteers, who worked together to change the lives of the Kibe family. The three young Kibe boys no longer sleep in tents, but in a new home with a solid roof. We vowed that if we were ever given an opportunity to do another project in the Des Moines metro area, we would do so. That opportunity came to us through the Anawim organization. Anawim's mission is "To provide safe, affordable housing which assists in the stabilization of low-income families and the revitalization of the Des Moines Metropolitan Neighborhoods." Families and neighborhoods: two things the Hubbell organization feels very strong about.

We knew our team could make a difference in our community by helping Anawim with its vision on Forest and 21st Street. We knew that through this project we could help not just one family, but hundreds of families over the life of the homes we would build. We could make a difference in the life of each family. young children. These families are all looking for one thing, a clean, dry home they can call their own, one that they can afford and that begins to offer them financial stability.

These are working families who need our help. When these families become financially stable through the assistance of Anawim, they will move on and allow other families the same opportunities. They will be given a chance to live the American Dream. We will make a difference in their lives. How can you help? There are many ways you can help us with the Anawim Extreme "9 Homes for 9 Families in 9 Days." We have approximately 1,500 volunteer opportunities available that you can register for at www.hubbellextreme.com.

These volunteer activities range from driving a van, to helping with meals, helping with construction clean-up, loading and unloading materials, or even building fences. If you don't feel you can do any of these things, please stop by and applaud the workers who are all giving of their time and materials to make this project a reality. Just saying "Thank you" can make a huge difference to these volunteers. Some groups are organizing food drives, some clothing drives, others furniture drives. Some groups are raising money to help these families and the Anawim organization further their mission.

There are many, many ways we as a community can come together and help. As I told our team when we started this project, "The many people that walk through the front door of each of these homes may not know your name, but they will always know your heart." So who will we be helping? I get asked that question a lot. Here are some examples of the families that will be moving into the nine homes. A grandmother who has taken custody of her teenage grandchildren; a young single mother of two with one child on the way; a young couple expecting their first child; a family of seven with children ranging in ages from 6 to 17 years of age; a working single mother with two young sons ages 6 and a working, three-generation family consisting of the grandfather, daughter and 4-year-old grandson; and a single working mother of three On anniversary of 911, our revenge is incomplete RICHARD COHEN writes for the Washington Post. Contact: cohenr washpost.com.

Today it has been eight years since I fled my office and rushed down to Lower Manhattan. Two planes had hit the World Trade Center I had seen that on television and I jumped on the subway, which, remarkably, was running and then, when I could go no further, went the rest of the way on the run. Suddenly, I heard a crack and the person next to me said, "They're scrambling jets," but the sky was empty and I knew that one of the towers had collapsed. I said to myself, "We'll get you, you bastards," but I was wrong. We haven't.

It has been eight years, two smacks of a primitive blood lust. And yet revenge also suggests a proper concern for the dead. The people who died on 91 1 cannot simply be dismissed, erased as if they had not been killed in a huge crime. It's not just that bin Laden is still at large. So are the Taliban that sheltered him.

This should not be complicated: The killers of Americans ought to pay for what they've done. It is good foreign policy. There are good reasons to remain in Afghanistan. There are also reasons to get out. These things are never easy.

It would be hard to turn our backs on Afghan progressives and women 1 of Americans as a stock character, a punch line: Heard this one about Osama bin Laden? Bin Laden must laugh. But I was near Ground Zero that day and I wanted then, as I do now, revenge for what happened. That revenge would be my first thought surprised me even then. I am not that sort of person. Revenge does not seem a fit subject for a column, or a columnist.

When we talk about Afghanistan, whether to stay or go, whether to hold the cards we now have or double down, we reach for all sorts of Metternichian reasons but never something as basic, as raw, as revenge. The word r. or and all the girls who would never get an education. A Taliban-controlled Afghanistan would make common cause with extremist elements in Pakistan, both civilian and military. The stakes increase then all those nukes, not only in Pakistan but in edgy India as well.

Leaving Afghanistan has the feel of whistling in the dark. It's as frightening as staying. But when we go if we go we will have to acknowledge that we have not only broken our vow to Afghans who have supported us the Taliban, unlike us, will get their revenge but also with the dead of September 11, 2001. We meant well. Sorry.

"ro 3 terms of Bush moralism and the beginning of Obama pragmatism, and the man who ordered the killing of Americans in Lower Manhattan and the Pentagon outside of Washington and in the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania is still in his lair. He has become a joke on late night television the murderer.