The faculty at Western Dubuque High School have gotten out of control. Some members of the school administration believe they are above the law or are law enforcement officers themselves. The Assistant Principal, Richard Hatcher, with the assistance and/or oversight of Tyler Lown, the Activities Director, believe it is within their rights to man handle female students, reach in their hoodies/pockets, request they remove their shoes & even SHIRTS down to their bra at times. These are grown men demanding teenage girls remove their shirts for them to do searches, not of weapons or drugs (typically), but mainly items such as vapes. This is completely unacceptable and disgusting. There are countless female faculty members such as teachers, nurses, office administrators, and a school resource officer that could & should be conducting the searches on female students. However, they should not be looking inside of student's intimate apparel such as bras, like they are doing. The same goes for female faculty members and male students. No female faculty should ever be putting her hands on or searching a male student. Unless there is a direct threat or danger by a student to commit harm to themselves or another person, no faculty member should EVER be putting their hands on a student. 

The Principal, Jacob Feldman, approves of this type of behavior conducted by his coworkers. When concerns were brought to his attention, his response was “I want you to know I'm confident in our processes and procedures here at Western Dubuque High School in regard to searching students when drugs, weapons, or any safety concerns arise.” 

Per Iowa Code 808A, school officials of the opposite sex may not conduct searches of a student of the opposite sex. The law also states, “a search is conducted in a manner which is reasonably related to the objectives of the search and which is not excessively intrusive in light of the age and gender of the student and the nature of the infraction.” Our Fourth Amendment Right establishes the "right of the people to be secure in their persons...against unreasonable searches and seizures." It seems like the personnel at Western Dubuque could care less about the damage they are doing to the students with their inappropriate behavior by taking the law into their own hands. 

Not only do these men think it is okay to intrude on student’s rights & their bodies, but they expect students & parents to remain calm and allow this ridiculous behavior conducted by the staff to continue. They abuse their power as Administrative Staff and try to do anything within their power to retaliate against anyone who does not back their nonsense, but we can’t back down and let them continue overstepping their boundaries. Who is to say these school employees will stop with just patting students down, searching their belongings, asking them to remove their shirts and that their aggressive & forceful grabbing of students isn’t going to escalate to something further? Who is to say these men aren’t going to cross the line even furtherby conducting unconstitutional strip searches like other school districts under fire across the US currently? 

As parents, we should not have to worry about our children being safe at school, nor should we have to worry about standing up for our children and protecting them against these power-tripping school officials. The students should not have to worry about being touched or asked to remove any article of clothing by school faculty members, especially of the opposite sex. The local police refuse to get involved in this mess and the school administration turns a blind eye to the abuse taking place by their faculty. It’s small-town cover ups and protection of the offenders.  Schools are supposed to be a safe learning environment for children where they are respected, but the faculty members at WDHS are creating a hostile environment for students. Faculty are making children feel targeted, uncomfortable, disrespected, and unsafe with their tactics of taking law enforcement into their own hands. There needs to be clear policies in place with disciplinary actions for faculty members who break the law, forcefully touch students, ask them to remove articles of clothing (especially when the opposite sex) and who abuse their power. Please join together to request the WDSD put policies in place to protect the students at Western Dubuque High School from these faculty members. We will not stand for this disgusting behavior from the administrative staff at WDHS any longer.