Police investigating alleged strip search of Richland County elementary school student

A Richland 2 administrator is on leave after being accused of strip-searching an elementary school student, officials said.

The allegations against the administrator surfaced Sunday in an email to the district, Richland 2 spokeswoman Libby Roof told The State. When the district arrived Monday and saw the emailed allegation, the administrator was placed on leave, Roof said.

The district issued a statement Wednesday in which Superintendent Dr. Baron Davis said, “Richland Two does not tolerate any type of misconduct involving students and always fully investigates any reports of possible violations of laws, policies and procedures.”

“I want to reassure the entire Richland Two family that providing safe, nurturing and caring environments that support quality teaching and learning at all of our schools remains our top priority,” he said.

The allegations became public during a Tuesday school board meeting when the allegation was repeated during the public comment period. Typically, anyone can watch online videos of school board meetings after they conclude, but the Tuesday meeting is not available on Richland 2’s website.

In the statement, the district said the allegations were “disturbing to hear just as they were disturbing to read about in the email.”

The video thumbnail of the meeting is password-protected and is accompanied by a note.

“Based on the advice of the district’s Director of Safety and Security, the availability of the livestream video from the meeting is currently restricted to protect the identity of a minor involved in an investigation. The district is exercising as much caution as possible during this ongoing investigation,” according to the note.

The district is required by law to to protect the “all individuals involved in during the investigations,” Davis said in the statement.

Roof would not say at which school the incident allegedly happened, and it is unclear when it happened. Richland 2 is treating the video of the public allegation as “evidence,” Roof said.

Roof called the allegations “very serious” and said the district is “cooperating fully” with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department.

The State has reached out to Richland County Sheriff’s Department.

Reporter David Travis Bland contributed to this story.

This story was originally published November 17, 2021 at 10:36 AM.