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Posted on 01/14/2009 2:45:52 PM PST by llevrok
SEATTLE — A panel of judges has apparently made Washington the first state to rule that juvenile students accused of chronically cutting classes in public schools are entitled to a lawyer in their first court hearing.
The Washington state Court of Appeals ruled Monday that denying a juvenile the right to a lawyer from the outset violated constitutional requirements.
Dan Donohoe, a spokesman for the King County prosecutor's office, said the ruling was under review and no decision had been made on whether to appeal to the state Supreme Court.
If it stands, the decision could make Washington the first state in which a juvenile is entitled to counsel at the outset of court truancy proceedings that could lead to penalties, said Paul M. Holland, director of the Ronald A. Peterson Law Clinic at Seattle University, which represented the student in the case.
"I am not aware of any states that provide lawyers at the initial stage of truancy proceedings," Holland said. "That is the most noteworthy part of this ruling."
He said it also is part of a growing body of law that recognizes the right to an attorney in certain civil matters as well as the well-established requirement for representation in criminal cases.
Under the law, a juvenile with at least seven unexcused absences in a month or 10 in a school year could be ordered to appear in Juvenile Court on a petition by school officials or the youngster's parents without being represented by an attorney.
The appeals court's decision was hailed by the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a brief supporting the juvenile, a Bellevue girl identified only as E.S. and described as an emotionally troubled member of a refugee family from Bosnia.
I hadn’t known that we were wasting taxpayer money providing truant students with meaningless court hearings.
Am I the only one who thinks that this is involuntary servitude? I was homeschooled and graduated early with college credits and was only in school a few hours a day.
This should come under the heading of "If You Thought Your Job Was Bad....."
Just imagine the fun of asking why the little darlings have been avoiding school big time. You might think the parent(s) would be taking action on their own, but since they won't the state will take over. It's not like Big Brother in 1984, where the dissenter actually had a rational reason for refusing to conform; but these are kids that aren't interesting in education. Why should they be, when drugs promise so many rewards right away? It's so much easier to drop out.
No, you are not alone. I have been comparing government schools to prisons for **years**.
The inmates of these government school prisons ( misnamed “public” schools) have **fewer** First Amendment Rights than prisoners. Gee! At least federal, state, and county prisoners are not subjected to the non-stop proselytizing in the religion of atheistic secular humanism that is preached in our government school prisons.
Also, unlike kids, adult prisoners are not segregated by age economic class and race. ( Remember: Since most students are assigned to their government school prison by geographic boundary, government school prisons are the **most** segregated institutions in the nation.)
* Told to **SHUT UP**!
* Marched from room to room like prisoners
* Like prisoners they are told when they can eat, use the bathroom, and exercise.
* Their associations with other students is as rigidly controlled as in any prison.
* They ride around in buses that look like prison work gang buses.
* They can not freely speak, publish, freely express their religion, or freely associate with people of their choosing.
* Unlike adult prisoners, children are subjected to non-stop proselytizing in the government religion of atheistic secular humanism.
Then....When children ( who have committed no crime) ***rationally** rebel to being treated like prisoners, they are hauled into court by armed police. If they persist in their rebellion they are placed in hard core, full-time prison.
We are truly governed by idiots...particularly here in Washington State.
Pretty soon I’m going to have to put a public defender in the passenger seat of my patrol car every night...and he better speak Spanish.
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