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Court rules social workers violated Christian students' rights

A federal court has ruled that a worker with the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare violated the rights of two students at a private Christian school. It's the second time in the last several years that that particular agency has been penalized for violating the constitutional rights of students in such a setting.

The more recent case (Michael C. v. Dana Gresbach) stems from an incident involving a social worker for the Bureau who went to the Good Hope Christian Academy to investigate an allegation that a young boy and his step-sister were being physically abused. In an effort to substantiate the abuse claims, the social worker (Gresbach) not only questioned the children, who were eight and nine years old, but also had the brother lift his shirt while she examined his back. Then, the government worker had the girl pull down her tights to examine for injury. The examinations reportedly took place with no other adult present.

The American Family Association's Center for Law & Policy (CLP) filed a lawsuit, alleging violation of the Fourth Amendment rights of the students, and now the federal court has agreed. AFA CLP attorney Steve Crampton says the court's ruling sends a clear message.

"I think the message is kind of like what Ronald Reagan said some years ago: the government is not the solution to the problem; the government in many cases is the problem," says Crampton, who describes the tactics used during the investigations as "kind of like Rambo coming into the families and trying to really dictate what is best practices with their kids.

"With the whole social services kind of network, we have to educate our Christian parents out there [about these violations]," he adds.

This marks the second case against the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare also involving an illegal search and seizure in a similar setting. In that case (Doe v. Heck), the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found the Bureau violated the rights of students at another private Christian school.