OCONTO, WI- Attorneys for Suring superintendent Kelly Casper are asking the judge to dismiss charges connected to student searches. Investigators say Casper and a school nurse searched six girls between the ages of 14 and 17 last January. Casper reportedly told them to strip down to their underwear as she and the nurse looked for vaping devices and cartridges.
In the seven-page motion, Casper’s attorney contends the criminal complaint does not support the law’s requirements for the charges.
“First, in order to sustain the charge, PUPIL 1 must be genuinely restrained or confined. This element required Superintendent Casper to deprive PUPIL 1 of the freedom of movement or compelled PUPIL 1 to remain where she did not wish to remain. The complaint indicates that while PUPIL 1 was in the nurse’s bathroom, Superintendent Casper stood outside of that room. Clearly, PUPIL 1 was not deprived of the freedom of movement. She was in a room with an open door and no one else was in the room with her. Further, there is no information contained in the complaint that PUPIL 1 did not willing and voluntarily go into the nurse’s bathroom. Nothing in the complaint indicated PUPIL 1 voiced a desire to leave the room,” the motion states.
“The jury instruction further requires that Superintendent Casper have the mental purpose to confine PUPIL 1. There is nothing in the criminal complaint which supports this proposition. It is clear the purpose of having each of the students in the bathroom is not confinement, rather privacy. The complaint provides no facts which support the conclusion that Superintendent Casper had any intent or desire to confine PUPIL 1.”
The motion also states that the students never objected and the superintendent can remove students from the classroom.
“As previously mentioned, Superintendent Casper had the authority, as other school personnel do, to put a student into a room if there is a belief that the student is in violation of school code or possible violation of a criminal law statute. Nothing in the complaint supports the conclusion that Superintendent Casper lacked the authority to have any of the students enter into a room to conduct what the state has conceded was an act that did not violate the law,” the motion states.
The defense has asked for a hearing on its motion. Kelly Casper was charged with six counts of false imprisonment for the Jan. 18 strip searches at the high school. She has an initial appearance scheduled for March 23.
The Suring School Board placed Casper on paid administrative leave.
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