Kentucky to Decide on Miranda Rights in Schools

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I did  “something stupid,” said Kentucky high school student N.C., admitting to his assistant principal and the school’s sheriff’s deputy that he gave two of his prescription pain pills to another student.  He was not read his rights, and the officer subsequently charged him with illegally dispensing a controlled substance.  N.C.’s attorney is arguing that the student should have been informed of his rights to leave, stay quiet or call an attorney. N.C. was “in custody” when he sat in an office with Nelson County High School Assistant Principal Mike Glass and School Resource Officer Deputy Steve Campbell, talking about his empty prescription medicine bottle, argued Robert Strong, assistant public advocate.  So the adults erred by failing the familiar Miranda warning: “You have the right to remain silent …”

“Given that the officer testified that the assistant principal was aware that N.C. had given some pills away before they interrogated him, the interrogation was a criminal investigation,” Strong wrote in his brief to the Kentucky Supreme Court. N.C. was not read his rights, so, Strong argued, the student’s statements to the two men should have been inadmissible in the criminal case against him. N.C., whose age is not given, was sentenced to 45 days in adult jail, on hold pending the outcome of his appeal.