Upon questioning in front of a school resource officer, who also happens to be a sworn police officer, should a student be informed of his right to remain silent and have an attorney prior to giving any answers? It may surprise you, but the answer depends on which state you live in.
In New York, South Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Texas, Tennessee, New Mexico, and Louisiana, school officials don’t have to read students their Miranda rights, while in Georgia, North Carolina, and now Kentucky, they do. Because of the difference in rulings coming out of state courts, Kentucky’s attorney general, Jack Conway, filed a petition with the US Supreme Court, asking it to overturn a Kentucky Supreme Court ruling granting students the right to be Mirandized before questioning by school officials if a resource officer is present.
The story was published in the Courier-Journal, here. The case involved a student, NC, who admitted to giving two pills to a friend who recently had wisdom teeth removed. The school’s assistant principal told NC that he was subject to school discipline, and the SRO told NC he would be charged with a crime prior to NC’s admission. NC was expelled and, since he had turned 18, sentenced to 45 days in jail. The sentence was stayed, however, pending an appeal.
On appeal, the Kentucky Supreme Court overturned the conviction. “No reasonable student, even the vast majority of 17-year-olds, would have believed that he was at liberty to remain silent, or to leave, or that he was even admitting criminal responsibility under these circumstances,” Justice Mary Noble wrote for the 4-3 majority in April. “If he had been an adult under these same circumstances, there is no question that the statements would not have been admissible under Miranda.”
This ruling then prompted the attorney general to call for a review by the high court. How do you think it will turn out? Will the Supreme Court take the case? As more and more schools, especially middle and elementary schools, hire more SROs than they had in the past, this question becomes increasingly important to operation of our schools. Principals and SROs can’t be left wandering in the dark when it comes to questioning students about drugs and other dangers, and one state shouldn’t be fundamentally different from any other state when it comes to the Fifth Amendment.
