OCONTO COUNTY (NBC 26) — A judge has dismissed criminal charges against a Suring school superintendent.
Suring Superintendent Kelly Casper was facing six counts of False Imprisonment. During a hearing Tuesday, the court granted her motion to dismiss the charges.
The charges were in connection to a January incident where students were searched down to their underwear for vaping materials.
During a previous court hearing in March, the District Attorney said Casper lacked legal authority to confine students in a restroom during the search.
The Oconto County District Attorney, Edward Burke, initially declined to file charges in the case, saying the searching of students didn't meet the state law's standards for strip-searching.
According to a statement released in late February from Burke's office, the State then conducted a thorough review of the relevant State Statutes and Administrative Code provisions relating to the ability of a school employee to confine a student.
The statement says that Superintendent Kelly Casper lacked legal authority to confine the students in a small restroom located off the nurse's office located in the Suring School Public School complex during the search.
"The facts and surrounding circumstances leads the State to conclude that the children involved did not consent to being confined," according to the statement.
Casper had previously been placed on paid administrative leave. NBC 26 reached out to the Suring School District on Tuesday and they did not want to comment.
From a Suring parent (whose daughter was searched) after false imprisonment charges against Superintendent Kelly Casper were dropped on Tuesday:
— Ben Bokun (@ben_bokun) June 21, 2022
"We are still going with the civil suit and we are going to try and get the new DA to press charges of some sort."
