
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 10, 1995                   TAG: 9506120042
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

NO STRIP TOOK PLACE, SCHOOL SAYS

The term "strip search," used in a lawsuit filed by a student suing to stay in school after events stemming from an alleged cheating incident, is "an unfortunate mischaracterization of what happened," a spokesman for the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine said Friday.

According to her lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Roanoke, veterinary student Deborah Ann Carboni was subjected to a strip search after being suspected of cheating on an April exam, which she was not allowed to finish.

Honor court proceedings followed. She was given a six-week suspension, which was upheld by a faculty board on appeal. Carboni's lawsuit calls the proceedings "a sham." She failed the course, grounds for dismissal from the school, the lawsuit says.

Carboni, a fourth-year veterinary student, is seeking reinstatement.

Vet school spokesman Jeffrey Douglas would not comment on details of the case.

"But I will tell you the individual cooperated with the college employees who were conducting the investigation," he said. "I will tell you the search was consensual; it involved a visual inspection of the individual as she voluntarily rearranged articles of clothing on her body.

``It is my understanding she did not remove her articles of clothing,'' he said.

Carboni's suit says "at no time did Ms. Carboni consent to such a search," that it left her "emotionally shaken and degraded," and "turned up nothing."

One of Carboni's attornies, Kathryn Harris of Washington, D.C., said she preferred not to comment on the case at this point. Judge James Turk on Thursday gave both sides a week to solve their differences.

The vet school's admissions committee will meet early next week, "at which time they could consider a reapplication of admission to the veterinary college program," Douglas said.

by CNB