Brian Cornfield Lost Strip-Search Lawsuit

In March 1991, staff at Carl Sandburg High School in Illinois noticed that a 16-year-old student named Brian Cornfield appeared unusually well-endowed, but a teacher and dean decided the bulge in his sweatpants might be hidden drugs. They took him to a locked boys' locker room and strip-searched him even after his mother refused permission. They found nothing, but Cornfield's lawsuit against the staff and Consolidated High School District No. 230 still failed. In 1993, the Seventh Circuit ruled that previous drug-related reports and the unusual bulge gave staff reasonable suspicion to conduct the search.

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