This article summarizes the facts and rulings of a relatively recent and representative federal appellate court decision concerning a parent’s civil rights lawsuit in response to a school nurse’s visual examination of a child’s “private parts.” The discussion of the court’s rulings extends to a sampling of related case law and, as in a previous NASN School Nurse Zirkel article, the difference between legal and professional boundaries.
AdimandoA. (2017). Examining children in the school setting. In ReshaC. A.TaliaferroV. L. (Eds.), Legal resource for school health services (pp. 333-339). Nashville, TN: SchoolNurse.com.
2.
Daniels v. Independent School District No. 0001 of Oklahoma County, 2018 WL 2145009 (W.D. Okla. May9, 2018).
3.
Doe v. Woodard, 912 F.3d 1278 (10th Cir. 2019).
4.
Dubbs v. Head Start, Inc., 336 F.3d 1194 (10th Cir. 2003).
5.
Hearring v. Sliwowski, 712 F.3d 275 (6th Cir. 2013), further proceedings, 806 F.3d 864 (6th Cir. 2015).
6.
K.R. v. United States, 843 F. Supp. 2d 343 (S.D.N.Y. 2012).
7.
Tennenbaum v. Williams, 193 F.3d 581 (2d Cir. 1999).
8.
ZirkelP. A. (2004). Protecting student health. Principal, 84(1), 10–11.
