A North Carolina mother is furious after an assistant principal strip-searched her 10-year-old son after he was accused of stealing $20 from a classmate.

Clarinda Cox told North Carolina TV station WRAL that the assistant principal at Union Elementary school, Teresa Holmes, ordered her son, Justin, to remove his shoes, jeans and shirt, leaving him in his boxers and a T-shirt.

No one from the school contacted her about the accusations or the search. She said she found out about the incident when her son came home and appeared upset, Cox said.

Holmes acknowledged searching the boy on June 1, but in a statement to WRAL, she said that when $20 fell from a female classmate’s pocket in the cafeteria, “seven or eight” students saw the Justin dive to pick it up.

“I walked up to Justin and told him that if he had the money it would be better to just give it to me because if not I would have to search him. Justin said that he did not have the money and to ‘search me,’” Holmes also said in the statement.

Holmes said she called a male janitor to witness the search in her office. Justin was made to remove his shoes, socks, jeans and shirt. The items were checked thoroughly before they were returned to him. She also acknowledged running her hands “outside of the waistband of his boxers.” (Yahoo News)