Is it wise to make criminals out of our children?

ARE TEACHERS AND ADMINISTRATORS HANDING DISCIPLINE OVER TO THE POLICE? The Atlantic article linked below recently caught our attention, as did recent videos posted online of physical confrontations between “school resource officers” and students. These disturbing videos show fully grown adult male officers striking adolescent students with closed fists, “body slamming” kids to the ground, and wrestling them out of chairs and onto the floor. So-called “school resource officers” have been a fixture in schools for years. SROs are law enforcement officers who patrol the schools while armed with a badge and a gun. SROs are purportedly a necessary element of positive community-based-policing. They are meant to positively influence the relationship between young people and law enforcement. But overworked administrators rely on SROs presence to keep the students “in line” during increasingly turbulent times at school. This presents some problems because:

• School administrators defer even minor disciplinary problems to the school resource officers; and
• School resource officers defer these minor disciplinary problems to the overburdened juvenile court system, where overworked prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges must deal with them.

This evidences a disturbing trend to criminalize what would otherwise be normal high school adolescent behavior. The end loser is the juvenile. It used to be that the teachers handled minor behavioral infractions. But recently, we’ve seen referrals to juvenile court for minor disruptive behavior, including throwing spit wads and offensive graffiti. Technically, throwing a spit wad IS an assault, and graffiti is criminal damage, but is the spit wad the kind of crime with which we want to burden the juvenile court system? Are these the sorts of crimes with which we want to populate our juvenile court docket? As you ponder these questions, and the increasingly blurred line between law enforcement and education, one should also consider what to do if one’s child is questioned by the police at school:

• The police must, by law, administer special age specific Miranda warnings to juveniles that advise your child of the right to have both an attorney and parent present during questioning.
• Your child has the absolute right to have a parent present during questioning. Take advantage of that right.
• Teach your child to remain silent in situations where an officer has given any kind of Miranda warnings.
• Never delegate your right to be present at your child’s questioning to a third party, such as an administrator or teacher.
• Your child has the right to have an attorney present. If your child is questioned, never waive your child’s right to counsel, even if the police ask you to do so.
• Never question your own child in front of a police officer. Anything your child says to you in the presence of an officer can and will be used against them. There will be time enough to do your own questioning when you get home. (We’ve seen many cases where the parent’s questioning has elicited a damning confession from the juvenile).

At the Law Offices of Michael P Denea, PLC, we remain ready to defend your loved one accused of any juvenile offense, having successfully handled numerous juvenile referral and school administrative disciplinary matters. Give us a call if you have any questions. To read the full article, click here: