Students forced to expose underwear for inspection

Jason Wheeler | WFAA-TV, Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas

Show Caption Hide Caption Kids forced to drop pants at school, checked for poop A Texas school district is investigating an incident in which several elementary school students were told to pull down their pants for inspection after feces was found on the gym floor.

GUSTINE, Texas — About two dozen elementary school students were rounded up and forced to pull down their pants earlier this week after school officials found feces on the gym floor.

Maria Medina, whose 11-year-old daughter Eliza Medina was searched Monday for evidence of defecation, said she can understand educators' frustration but they went too far when they took boys to one room and girls to another and ordered them to pull down their pants.

"I felt uncomfortable, and I didn't want to do it," Eliza said. "I felt like they violated my privacy."

"I said I didn't want to, but I was told I had to because all the kids had to," she said.

Gustine, population 480, is about 90 miles southwest of Fort Worth. Its one school serves students in all grades and has an enrollment of about 230, according to The Texas Tribune.

"I was furious," Medina said. "If you can't do your job or you don't know what you're doing, you need to be fired. You shouldn't be here."

Superintendent Ken Baugh of Gustine Independent School District acknowledged that making kids drop their drawers goes too far.

"That's not appropriate, and we do not condone that," he said. "So you would take disciplinary action."

But early in his investigation Baugh said his understanding is that the children were told to lower their pants just a little.

Eliza insists it was more than that.

"Like ... to where your butt is," she said.

And her mother contends that no matter how much backside the children had to expose, having kids line up for underwear inspection is simply unacceptable.

"Wrong is wrong," Medina said.

While Baugh said he hopes to have his investigation wrapped up by Wednesday, some angry parents are planning to show up Thursday at the next school board meeting to demand that someone be held accountable.