Families Settle Strip-Search Case

Thu., April 16, 1998

From Staff

Fifteen families of girls subjected to a strip search at a McMinnville middle school have accepted a $5,000 settlement offer from the insurance companies representing the city and the McMinnville School District.

In addition to the checks, the families will be reimbursed for up to $1,250 in legal fees and are being offered up to $1,000 for counseling.

Nineteen families have yet to say whether they would accept the offer, said Mark Rauch, senior staff attorney for City County Insurance Services. One family rejected it.

In all, 36 girls were subjected to the search Jan. 29 at Duniway Middle School after the girls’ locker room was ransacked during a gym class and none of the seventh- and eighth-graders in the class admitted responsibility for the theft.

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