Yea, every bully knows they MUST sign their names to their threatening letters, especially the ones that mention the word murder. Sounds like the police just had to do their job, no matter how absurd the allegation was. However, I would want to know the outcome and who is held responsible for it and make sure everyone in the school knows it...
Yea, every bully knows they MUST sign their names to their threatening letters, especially the ones that mention the word murder. Sounds like the police just had to do their job, no matter how absurd the allegation was. However, I would want to know the outcome and who is held responsible for it and make sure everyone in the school knows it...
Whether a child’s parent must be present during police questions depends upon state statue and legal rulings.
A more interesting issue is whether your daughter’s Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and her Fourteen Amendment right to due process were violated.
The first question is whether there is “State Action”. Here she was being questioned by the police, who are state actors.
The second and more important question is whether your daughter was under custodial interrogation.
According to the facts, she was brought to an office and questioned by four police officer and a school offical about a alleged threatening letter.
I would argue that she was in custody since she clearly was deprived of her right to leave.
She was also under interrogation since the police and administrator were trying to elicit criminal evidence against her.
If your daughter was under custodial interrogation, the police must inform her of her “Miranda Rights”.
Failure to do so, would result in the suppression of any evidence gathered during the interrogation as “the fruits of the poisonous tree.” Also it is a civil rights violation.
Here there are unclear as to whether she was given her Miranda rights.
According to the Supreme Court, if a suspect can not clearly acknowledge that he understands these rights, all interrogation must stop.
It can be argued that a 12 year old can not be reasonably expected to clearly knowingly and intelligently acknowledge that he understands these rights.
If your daughter’s rights have been violated, you might consider bringing a suit against the police under 42 USC section 1983.
Sounds more like poor and lazy police work. Maybe they thought they were scaring your daughter into confessing or something. But a little easy investigating would have prevented the humiliation.
Not wanting to put down ALL cops because they are not all bad...but many of them are not exactly the sharpest tools in the shed. Many are not trained well, on power trips, or just not very smart. If I were you I would find out who the officer was that was in charge of this investigation and contact his superior and go up the chain that way until you get an answer on why they thought it was necessary to do what they did. If you arnt satisfied, talk to a lawyer or call your local media.
As for your rights as a parent...The laws vary by state, so its going to be tough for you to get the correct answers here as far as what right you have as a parent to be present. I know that where I live if a child was caught in the act of a crime (ie: shoplifting) the store can hold the child and the police and arrest the child without the parent being there. Now that is sort of a different situation. But it shows that the law may say that a parent might not have to be present.
I would do several things (I’m not a lawyer and don’t play one on TV!):
1) File a complaint with your local school board, followed by a lawsuit. The police and the school may have the RIGHT to question your daughter without one of her parents present, but they were ill-advised to do so. If she was not read her rights prior to being questioned (and, since she’s not an adult and may not understand her Miranda rights, she can’t agree to them or waive them), they violated her rights under the Constitution (particularly the 5th Amendment) since they would have arrested her had she been the one who actually wrote the letter. So, IMO, the same principle applies.
2) I would also have an attorney file a complaint with the PD’s Internal Affairs Division and with your District Attorney that the action taken by the officers violated your daughter’s civil rights and amounted to attempted coercion by intimidation.
3) I would file a separate lawsuit against the school principal for allowing this to occur without you being notified. They are charged with safeguarding your daughter from intimidation and bullying and they were active participants in intimidating and bullying your daughter.
4) Finally, I would immediately withdraw my daughter from the school and, if you can’t afford to send her to a private school, I would homeschool her. This is one more example of the abject failure of our public school system and why these people need to be canned.
Threatening to go to the local newspaper with your story always works well, the cops and the school do not want this in the paper!
Just wanted to add that I remember in 6th grade I had a friend that became unkind. I wrote a note to her, telling her how I felt. I left several blank places where I didn’t write in words... like I am mad as _________ (heck is what I would have said but didn’t think it was nice to write). She came up to me later and had written horrible words in the blanks and had lightly erased them, and accused ME of writing the very bad words.
I instantly grabbed the letter from her hands and tore it up quickly before she had a chance to show the teacher, which she had threatened to do. Her face was priceless.... she couldn’t believe that she had lost the note she had prepared to blackmail me with!
I can only imagine if it would have been 2010 and I would have been surrounded by five policemen and accused of bullying!!
Lawyer up, my friend, and get ready to sue someone immediately.
I kid you not. Make the first strike.
My family was harrassed by a POS for 2 years. Then, she turns to her uncle, an officer, and claims my sister was the one harrassing her! They dragged my sister to the police station, never read her her rights, did not allow my parents to be present (even though my sister was a minor), and then my sister was summoned to court!
My father hired the most ferocious attorney he could find. He got that girl on the stand and tore her apart. Judge threw the case out.
Seriously. Put someone on retainer just in case.
Liars often screw up details, but the truth remains constant. Pin point this bitch down to a specific date. Then get the tape to prove she is A LIAR.
The only way to stop a bully is to win decisively - in your case, in front of the school officials and/or the courts.
It will ensure that NO ONE messes with your kids again.
It sounds like the police were respectful, and they were clear to her and you about the situation. Your daughter is innocent, and she helped them clarify the situation.
Yes, its not at all a comfortable situation to be involved with police (only for law-abiding citizens it seems!), but why be so upset?
If that's what the note said, I doubt the police really believe your daughter wrote it. ;-) Why would a student not only sign her own name, but also list her grade next to her name, in a death threat?
Until this matter is resolved, I wouldn't trust the older sister, either.
If a parent places a child in a prison-like educational setting, they should fully expect their child to suffer from the **same** types of social pathology found in hardcore prisons.
Solution: HOMESCHOOL
I can only imagine how upsetting it is for your family that this little witch hunt has been perped against your daughter.
On the subject of bullying programs; they are often perceived by students as harassment and snitch programs. It is often used by radical adults to go after their politically incorrect enemies at the school, ie, a kid who tells a gay teacher he does not care to hear about and rejects gay sexual behavior. It is often selective by race; only going after racially and sexually politically incorrect bullies while other bullies do as they wilt w/o consequence. Also it targets your daughter with the meanest attention in the school as she have been selected to bully the bullies.
I don’t know what the adults are like at your daughter’s school, but bullying the bullies it is an adult sized complication that I would not have my kid involved with. The adults don’t have the wisdom and honor to protect your daughter from the abuse that will come her way which is why they need a bullying program to begin with.
As to your question. Go get a lawyer NOW. Sue if you have to (and the lawyer thinks you have a case) but let the school administration know that you will not tolerate this crap again - -to any of your kids. I speak from personal experience but trust me when I tell you attitudes in the school regime change dramatically when a lawyer is involved.
From a retired school administrator (Texas)
Yes, in most states school administrators must defer to law enforecement for interviews. A smart principal calls the parents but allows the interview to proceed. Here’s where there’s a problem. Where I worked (21 years in a 5A district) our officers would not have interviewed a student on evidence that flimsy and so easily concocted. First an assistant principal would have made the accused put the accusations in writing, naming witnesses to support the contention. Then, each witness would have been put throught the same process.Usually a grudge complaint starts to fall apart pretty quickly - no history, no eyewitness, just “she said/she said” stuff. The whole incident sounds like somebody at the school failed to engage their brain.
No person should ever permit themselves to be interviewed by police other than in the presence of their attorney. Nothing good ever comes from this.
Similar thing happened to my son when he was a Jr., much older.
Some yout named Josh and a group of silly girls who wanted attention they were not getting conspired to claim that the son and his friends had said they were going burn Josh’s house. This was shortly after Columbine.
The assistant principal met the boys at each class change and dogged their tracks from class to class. He also had the campus cop, who took time from ogling high school girls and eating donuts, question the boys.
The son and his buddies were not above tormenting any fool they could make look more foolish and soon the AP had contrived a conspiracy. This is when I was called and got involved and yes, I did know about the previous encounters.
I went down, examined the facts and there were none available from the accusers. There was also only innuendo and circumstantial evidence of the conspiracy. I provided a litany of reasonable questions to the AP and he seemed to realize he had been taken. I ended the discussion by telling him that I had already contacted my attorney and that any further communication would be from him and furthermore that he would be sending a cease and desist letter. I said this kind of thing gets out of hand quickly and I would not tolerate anymore accusations like this without fighting back... I had a case.
It ended. We graduated public school and if I had young children again they would never set foot in public school... it is insane.