Cases raise question for police doing campus interviews without parent consent
By Tom Chorneau
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
School officials in California have generally stepped aside when law enforcement comes on campus seeking to interview a student - but that practice has come into question and is now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a case emanating from Oregon, the nation's high court will consider sometime during the 2011 term what authority or responsibility school officials have in arbitrating law enforcement's access to students.
At issue is a case in which a social worker and a deputy sheriff pulled a 9-year-old student into a two-hour interview to evaluate charges of sexual abuse at the girl's home.
The case is of particular interest in California, noted attorney Sloan Simmons from Lozano Smith, because of long-standing opinions from the state Attorney General that call on school officials to cooperate and not to obstruct law enforcement officers that want to interview students on campus.
In Greene v. Camreta, police were concerned that a person living at the residence of the student was sexually abusing children.
The subject had been previously arrested on charges involving a 7-year-old boy. The school site interview was an attempt by law enforcement to obtain information without the subject being aware of the investigation.
According to press reports, the girl confirmed during the interview that she had been abused but she later recanted those statements. Her mother sued police, saying that when the girl was taken from the classroom her civil rights had been violated.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that the two-hour interview violated the Fourth Amendment as an unlawful seizure. The court said that the social worker and the police needed a warrant, court order or parental consent to authorize the interview unless they could show exigent circumstances.
Simmons from Lozano Smith notes that California policy appears to be in conflict with the Ninth Circuit ruling. "As such, some education law practitioners have indicated Camreta could lead to a basis for liability against school districts when school personnel consent to or facilitate interviews of students by law enforcement in the child abuse context." Simmons said in a recent client update.