Although you may be strip searched, guard your virginity, if only in your mind

by Chrystal Writtier

When I was four years old, I was sexually molested by a drunken neighbor who decided he wanted to show me his genitals. I told my parents who hurriedly whisked me off to the ER to have my virginity checked. To add insult to injury, I was vaginally examined by a male doctor who found no signs of sexual penetration, so the perpetrator was never arrested. He later committed suicide.

Although I was still a virgin, my mind was violated twice. This unwanted, unsolicited victimization coupled with a religious upbringing where modesty was valued made me hold fast to my physical virginity a lot longer than other young women my age. That was a good thing.

Yesterday’s troubling announcement that the Supreme Court approves of arrest coupled with strip searches, regardless of the crime, gives government security officials free rein to violate God's human temples, regardless of guilt or suspicion.

Pediatrics reported in 2011 that by age 23, up to 41 percent of American adolescents and young adults have been arrested at least once for something other than a minor traffic violation. We must warn our children that they, too, may be despoiled if picked up by the police, and they won’t be able to sue if they are maltreated in the examining room. The FBI reported that law enforcement made an estimated 13,687,241 arrests in 2009.

The arrest records of African American youth are staggering. According to Professor Paula J. Fite, Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Black youths are arrested three times more than White youths.

If a strip search can lead to psychological trauma that is not treated, the statistics show that we may have millions of depressed, anxious adults running around America who have been strip searched and could become abusers themselves.

Physiologically, virginity is equated with the hymen for girls and penetration for boys, but I believe psychological virginity deals with one's body space. Can you have your virginity taken away in your mind by physical violation in the jailhouse? I say privacy and virginity are one in the same.

It may sound old fashion, but I still think most Americans view virginity as sacred, that the body should not be desecrated in life or death, and that personhood encompasses the soul AND body.

I guess while we’re spending billions on war, that it's too expensive to retrofit arresting stations with airport-like scanners to detect illegal dangers inside the body, up the anus, underneath fat-folds, or under armpits.

Strip searches are often performed by hurtful, impersonal, impatient, non-medical security officials gloved and ready to violate a person's inner sanctum. With this ruling, The Supremes have decided that security dangers outweigh individual embarrassment, and one must be ready to be violated by unfamiliar forces if arrested. This ruling also discourages people from protesting laws for fear they will be strip searched.

In the US, where you are presumably innocent until proven guilty, a person's sexual innocence can be taken away quickly and indiscreetly, and there is nothing you can do about it. Police power can be abusively intrusive, and even if you may be fond of a friendly goosing every now and then, you still should have the right to say no, don't touch there. Not so when you arrive in jail in handcuffs in 40 U.S. states.

This new ruling has the potential of creating more mad people.

While reading Caroline Kennedy (Schlossberg) and Ellen Alderman's account of a friend in their 1995 book "The Right to Privacy," I was alarmed over Dr. Joan W. statements. She was strip searched by two females.

"I felt like an animal," she said after the lips of her vagina and her buttock were examined for contraband. Even a dog is treated more modestly by a vet taking an anal temperature. Even a collarless mutt is handled more humanly than a person in lockup.

Even though the Justices of the highest court have ruled, I fear God is not pleased with their decision. Our Ultimate Judge deems every body He has created precious and one's privacy, i.e. virginity, guard worthy. So do I, whether in the bedroom or the jailhouse. One is a more private, protected place.

You or your child may never be strip searched, so you should not be paranoid to the point that you don’t occasionally jaywalk; however, tell your child if she/he is arrested to stay calm, and that this is only one of life's unfortunate, unpleasant, unreasonable, invasive procedures that can legally occur even with the 4th Amendment in place.