I was just looking for credit cards or cash. HONEST!!

Nearly two dozen girls were stripsearched at a Pike County vocational school while officials investigated the possible theft of a credit card and money.

The girls in a nursing class at Vern Riffe Career Technology Center in Piketon were taken individually to a bathroom by their teacher on Friday and made to drop their pants, remove their shirts and unfasten their bras and shake them out, said parent Betty Grandstaff.

She and other angry parents said the incident left their daughters shaken and was a violation of the girls’ privacy.

"She was upset and almost in tears," Grandstaff said of her daughter, 17-yearold Heather McCloud. "She has never been so embarrassed in her life."

Superintendent Stephen E. Martin told WBNS-TV (Channel 10) that the officials were doing what they thought school policy allowed them to do. The student conduct manual said teachers can conduct reasonable searches but does not say they are allowed to do strip searches, according to WBNS.

The station reported that the school policy is under legal review, and that the Ohio Department of Education also is investigating.

Grandstaff said she has complained to the superintendent.

"He told me that they had the right to do it, they thought it was a reasonable search and that none of the girls objected."

Her daughter told her, however, that some of the girls tried to object to the strip search but were told, "No, you do it,’ " Grandstaff said.

Grandstaff said that she and other parents think the strip search violated their daughters’ Fourth Amendment right to protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

Parent Carol Knisley said she has contacted the State Board of Education to complain. Her 18-year-old daughter, Misty Knisley, was among the students subjected to the strip search.

"I about went through the roof on this," said Knisley, who said she went to the school Monday and spoke to Smith. "He said he OK’d this, and said, ‘I’m here to protect my school.’ I said, ‘It ain’t going to be swept under the carpet.’ "

The Department of Education told WBNS that a teacher violating a student’s rights could lead to the suspension or revocation of a teaching license.

***What a rockin' school!!!