COMPETENCY 8: LEGAL AND POLICY ISSUES
Related Task 8.3: Knowledge of laws related to adolescent behavior
Specific Task 8.3.4: Participate in discussions with local police and juvenile authorities. Summarize important concepts
Narrative description of specific task: Review school behavior policies and determine where policies and laws overlap. Work with cooperating administrator and police liaison officer to determine rights of students and school officials with regard to topics such as search, seizure, and investigations. Identify instances where the behavior policy rubric was not followed, and reflect on why principal discretion differed from policy recommended punishments.
This year Grand Blanc High School made it very clear to students via video announcement that student drug violations would not be permitted, and that such a violation would result in law enforcement, particularly the School Resource Officer (SRO), being brought in to issue tickets to offenders. This change in policy has legal ramifications beyond the school building that could potentially put the school district in a difficult legal battle if the school is not careful with how questioning is handled.
Recently, "two separate state supreme courts (Kentucky-N.C. v. The Commonwealth of Kentucky, and in Delaware-Hunt v. The State of Delaware), held that SRO's violated student's Miranda Rights" by not issuing Miranda Right warnings prior to conducting any sort of questioning. In today's "Zero Tolerance" climate where any drug violation is "shifted from school disciplinary action to criminal charges" there becomes an issue of whether or not a student is being detained for questioning when a uniformed officer has not identified themselves and the student is being questioned as part of a criminal investigation.
For this competency, Detective Bryan Byarski, the High School's SRO, was interviewed regarding his thoughts on the subject and whether or not policy recommendations need to be made. The detective and my mentor work very close with each other when dealing with an search and seizure case. Detective Byarski said that there are numerous drug violations throughout the school year that range anywhere from possession of small amounts of prescription medications to full on distribution of marijuana and heroin. While this is shocking to some, it is unfortunately a fact of life in a school building of 2,800 students. Read about one drug issue on the Blog HERE. Byarski is aware of the issues of not reading students their Miranda rights, but said it has never really been an issue at the school. He said most of the time he tries to have the assistant principal's do the questioning and searches of students because students are more likely to confess things to the principal than a uniformed police officer.
Because of the cases in Kentucky and Delaware, and Grand Blanc's Zero Tolerance policy, it is clear that procedures for questioning and searching students should be revised and put into practice immediately. All questioning and search activities should be conducted solely by trained school administrator's. The relationship that administrator's have with students, plus their exemption from Miranda law makes them the ideal candidate to carry out these tasks. While nice to have an SRO present, the new legal liability is not worth the risk when questioning students regarding potential criminal actions. However, if a case is so serious that bringing the SRO into the matter would be beneficial, it should become school policy that the SRO immediately read the student his or her Miranda Rights prior to any questioning.
Related Task 8.3: Knowledge of laws related to adolescent behavior
Specific Task 8.3.4: Participate in discussions with local police and juvenile authorities. Summarize important concepts
Narrative description of specific task: Review school behavior policies and determine where policies and laws overlap. Work with cooperating administrator and police liaison officer to determine rights of students and school officials with regard to topics such as search, seizure, and investigations. Identify instances where the behavior policy rubric was not followed, and reflect on why principal discretion differed from policy recommended punishments.
This year Grand Blanc High School made it very clear to students via video announcement that student drug violations would not be permitted, and that such a violation would result in law enforcement, particularly the School Resource Officer (SRO), being brought in to issue tickets to offenders. This change in policy has legal ramifications beyond the school building that could potentially put the school district in a difficult legal battle if the school is not careful with how questioning is handled.
Recently, "two separate state supreme courts (Kentucky-N.C. v. The Commonwealth of Kentucky, and in Delaware-Hunt v. The State of Delaware), held that SRO's violated student's Miranda Rights" by not issuing Miranda Right warnings prior to conducting any sort of questioning. In today's "Zero Tolerance" climate where any drug violation is "shifted from school disciplinary action to criminal charges" there becomes an issue of whether or not a student is being detained for questioning when a uniformed officer has not identified themselves and the student is being questioned as part of a criminal investigation.
For this competency, Detective Bryan Byarski, the High School's SRO, was interviewed regarding his thoughts on the subject and whether or not policy recommendations need to be made. The detective and my mentor work very close with each other when dealing with an search and seizure case. Detective Byarski said that there are numerous drug violations throughout the school year that range anywhere from possession of small amounts of prescription medications to full on distribution of marijuana and heroin. While this is shocking to some, it is unfortunately a fact of life in a school building of 2,800 students. Read about one drug issue on the Blog HERE. Byarski is aware of the issues of not reading students their Miranda rights, but said it has never really been an issue at the school. He said most of the time he tries to have the assistant principal's do the questioning and searches of students because students are more likely to confess things to the principal than a uniformed police officer.
Because of the cases in Kentucky and Delaware, and Grand Blanc's Zero Tolerance policy, it is clear that procedures for questioning and searching students should be revised and put into practice immediately. All questioning and search activities should be conducted solely by trained school administrator's. The relationship that administrator's have with students, plus their exemption from Miranda law makes them the ideal candidate to carry out these tasks. While nice to have an SRO present, the new legal liability is not worth the risk when questioning students regarding potential criminal actions. However, if a case is so serious that bringing the SRO into the matter would be beneficial, it should become school policy that the SRO immediately read the student his or her Miranda Rights prior to any questioning.
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