Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia on Friday ordered the suspension of a policy that allows prison officials to strip-search children after an 8-year-old girl was told to remove her clothes before being allowed to see her father, an inmate.

“I am deeply disturbed by these reports, not just as governor, but as a pediatrician and a dad,” Mr. Northam said in a statement. “I’ve directed the secretary of public safety and homeland security to suspend this policy while the department conducts an immediate investigation and review of their procedures.”

The child had gone to Buckingham Correctional Center in Dillwyn, Va., on the Sunday before Thanksgiving to visit her father when officials from the state Department of Corrections told her she would need to be strip-searched, The Virginian-Pilot reported.

The child had come to the prison with her father’s girlfriend, Diamond Peerman, who is not the girl’s legal guardian. Prison staff members asked the girl to strip after a dog trained to sniff out drugs had lingered on Ms. Peerman and the child while they waited in a line with other visitors, according to The Pilot.