Winslow strip search settlement reported

WINSLOW – Winslow school officials agreed to pay $15,000 to settle a case in which a 14-year-old student was strip-searched last December, according to a published report.

The payments were detailed in a settlement approved by a Superior Court judge Sept. 22 and were made public Monday in response to a Freedom of Access request by the Morning Sentinel newspaper.

The newspaper reported that under the agreement, the school system paid $8,500 in damages to be put into a trust for the girl and also agreed to pay $6,500 in attorney fees to the Maine Civil Liberties Union, which represented the girl and her mother.

The newspaper said on Dec. 15, 2006, the girl was forced to remove her clothes above the waist in the presence of two female staff members to see whether she was hiding drugs in her bra, according to the documents filed in Kennebec County Superior Court. No drugs were found, according to Winslow Police Chief Richard Grindall.