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Corrections officers strip-searched as many as five District middle school students at the D.C. Jail last week on a visit arranged by two teachers who wanted to show a group of misbehaving children what would happen if they got arrested, according to jail officials and one of the students.

The decision to order the pupils from Evans Middle School to disrobe apparently was made jointly by jail employees and the teachers, officials said. They said the students, all of them boys, may have been stripped within view of inmates in holding cells.

Three jail officers and the two teachers were placed on leave yesterday pending the outcome of separate investigations by the city's Department of Corrections and the school system. None of the employees was identified.

"I'm appalled," said Odie Washington, head of the Department of Corrections. "I was absolutely outraged . . . because I could not believe that kids would be subjected to any strip-search procedure in the jail. Clearly, it's not the policies and procedures of this agency to subject any tours to any strip-searching at all."

The FBI also is investigating the case at the jail's request. Allen Hirsch, a supervisory special agent in the FBI's Washington field office, said the agency would determine whether the children's civil rights were violated as part of an unreasonable search and seizure.

The incident happened Thursday and involved a visit to the jail in Southeast by a dozen Evans students who had received in-school suspension because of misconduct. The jail typically hosts three groups of students a week, some as young as elementary age, who are brought in both as a civics lesson and to deter them from committing crimes, Washington said. He said he has suspended all such tours because of the strip-search and is reviewing the jail's rules for the visits.

Joseph Bennett, 14, one of the boys from Evans who took the tour, said the students first were taken to a processing area and watched as inmates were strip-searched. He said two guards then picked him and four other boys to go into another room, where they were told to strip.

"The officers said, 'We're going to make you take your clothes off like real prisoners,' " said Joseph, a seventh-grader.

One of the boys protested, Joseph recalled, saying, "You all are not supposed to do this because we were only coming for a tour."

Joseph said he removed his two T-shirts, jeans and shoes in front of the other students, at least three corrections officers and one of the teachers. He said an officer removed the rest of his clothes. "The security guard put me on a table and pulled off my boxers and socks," Joseph said.

He said inmates could see him strip. Jail officials said that was possible, but they could not say for certain.

One of the boys who undressed then was told to put on a blue jail jumpsuit, Joseph said.

A jail worker who said he saw what happened and who spoke on condition of anonymity recalled that some of the students were behaving badly and that one of them was made an example.

"He was the first one," the worker said, adding that he saw the boy nude. "He was made the example and brought to the segregation cage. This kid was 13 years old. He was screaming and crying."

Washington said he was not sure about many details of the incident. So far, he said, jail investigators have interviewed only the corrections officers who were present. According to Washington, the officers said the teachers asked for the strip-search because they wanted to expose the misbehaving students to "what they may be facing in the future." The officers said three students disrobed, Washington said.

He said the officers also told investigators that the students originally resisted stripping but then consented.

Washington said that based on preliminary interviews, there is no evidence that a child was placed in a cell.

Joseph's mother, Angela Harvin, who works at the school as an aide, said she had given permission for her son to see the jail and put on a jumpsuit over his clothes. But she said she was furious when Joseph returned from the jail and reported being strip-searched.

"That's invading their privacy," Harvin said. "I just wanted him to go to see how inmates get treated so he won't take the wrong path in life." She said she and about seven other parents were called to come to the school yesterday afternoon to meet with an investigator.

Washington said he did not learn about what had happened until Tuesday.

He said others in his department knew about it earlier and alerted school officials -- although he could not say which ones -- on Monday.

School officials disputed that, saying they did not learn about the incident until yesterday, though Joseph said his classmates reported the incident to the school's principal the day it occurred.

Diane Brown, principal of the 300-student school, in the 5600 block of East Capitol Street NE, declined to comment yesterday.

The day after the incident, the school sent a group of girls to the jail. They were not ordered to take off their clothes.

Dana Jones, 13, one of the girls who went to the jail Friday, said some of the girls were placed in handcuffs and shackles. Washington said he was not aware of that, adding that placing children in restraints would violate jail policy.

School Superintendent Paul L. Vance said he learned of the strip-search only yesterday.

"I am just horrified," Vance said. "I'm shocked at the whole matter -- that anything like this could possibly happen. It's just a horrible turn of events.

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Resident Board Socialist

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Who says thats just for GS enjoyment. I think others will like that story

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"Murder one inborn into your every cell
It's in your blood and you can't shake it
Because you were bred to take it
Next stop annihilation
They bred the hate right in your bones"
-The Misfits


Have any anime questions? Send me a E-mail or IM me at AIM:Hitokiri182
I have adopted jerichoholic1 and Daisy NJ as my newbies. Dont ask me how I adopted her, the Gods must be smiling upon me. :)

***ATTENTION ALL NEWBIES*** I am now accepting requests to make Sig Pics if you desperatly need one. Contact me for further information.

This message was edited by Sephiroth on 5-25-01 @ 11:10 PM

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a anti-gun activist was shot and killed when demonstrating to a middle school student the dangers of pointing a gun at yourself

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The idiot could not have at least checked to make sure the gun was not loaded during his demonstration?

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