Alabama parents claims school officer frisked minors for phones and touched them inappropriately: ‘Under the breasts’
Parents have come forward to protect their children.
Parents of students in an Alabama middle school have sounded the alarm over a female school resource officer (SRO) allegedly touching minors inappropriately during a frisk in search of phones. Authorities have since confirmed that the accused SRO has been removed from the school pending investigation.
On Monday afternoon, the principal of Bessemer City Middle School, Dominique Moore, reportedly instructed around two dozen students to line up in the cafeteria during lunch for a pat-down, while an SRO searched the minors for phones. However, several students alleged that they were violated during the search. Allegations included female students being touched between and under their breasts and on the hips by the SRO, according to WVTM 13.
Shanayah Mosley, the mother of a 14-year-old student who was among those frisked, implied that the pat-down was a routine activity at the Alabama school. “[The principal] announced, ‘You know what time it is.’ And they started to line up for being frisked, apparently,” Mosley told the outlet. “The SRO proceeded to intrusively [touch] in between the breasts, under the breasts, contact here and on hips and whatnot of minors, looking for cell phones.”
Alabama students say they didn’t realize they were victims
Mosley said that her daughter “sounded like a victim” when she brought up the incident. Although Mosley’s daughter was unsure of what happened at the time, she claimed to have felt “violated” as she watched her peers allegedly receive the same treatment, per WBRC.
A second parent, Antania Brewster, shared that her daughter echoed the same sentiments. Brewster’s daughter was reportedly left confused and even ashamed by the alleged violation, saying she hadn’t realized she was being inappropriately touched since it was happening to others as well.
“I felt like, oh my God, like you’ve been violated and don’t even understand that you’ve been violated because you seeing everybody get violated and you thinking it’s okay and it’s not,” Brewster said. “I was angry, I felt like my kid had been violated. As an adult, I don’t like to be searched, so let alone my 14-year-old kid. And heartbroken, actually, my kid was too uncomfortable to tell her own mom. That hurt.”
Parents question necessity of frisking
The parents later questioned the necessity of such a physical search, noting that students already pass through a metal detector to enter the school and that the SRO had a security wand. “There was no just cause for a search. There was no threat identified for a frisk in the first place,” Mosley said.
Bessemer City Schools Superintendent Michael Turner later confirmed the incident in a statement, citing students’ possible possession of vapes and phones as what prompted the search in accordance with Alabama’s FOCUS Act. State Governor Kay Ivey signed the FOCUS (Freeing Our Classrooms of Unnecessary Screens for Safety) Act into law in May 2025, banning students from using phones and other wireless devices in the state’s public schools. The move was made to limit students’ distractions in a school setting, allowing them to direct their attention to learning rather than what is on their screen.
School officials acknowledged the accusations against the SRO and announced that an internal investigation was launched. “While we cannot provide additional comment on this matter, we want to assure families that student safety is our top priority,” Turner said.
Meanwhile, the SRO had been removed from her position, and parents were scheduled to meet with the school’s board members and superintendent on Wednesday.
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