Legal Question in Discrimination Law in Illinois

violating rights of children
Does the police and school have the right to hold my son for questioning, keep him after school and not inform the parents? Were rights violated in any way by doing this or by using scare tactics to get him to confess to something he did not do? The principle admitted that the police were intimidating the kids being questioned in order to get them to admit to having beat up on an african-american boy. After their investigation and after seeing surveillance videos, the school and police believe that the accuser either lied about the alleged attack or that he lied about WHO actually beat him up. They do not believe that my 9 year old had anything to do with it.
The accuser later recanted and said that my son and another boy were not involved. Later the mom said that maybe none of the boys accused were involved after all.
My son was traumatized by this event and the people that we taught him to trust in (police and school administrators) were the ones that failed him by not protecting him, by not letting him go home at the end of school day, by not calling parents. Do we have a case? If so, against the police, school or both?

Asked on 11/20/08, 2:23 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys

Stephanie Galetti Knapp Ohl & Green

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Re: violating rights of children

These cases are very fact-specific and, although the police in some instances may need to contact a parent to continue questioning of a child, it would very much depend upon the context in which he was being questioned, how long the questioning lasted, who else was there, and the type of questions being asked. If the school called the police to report an alleged incident, the police would have the right to investigate it and to speak with potential witnesses and/or suspects. However, this would not give them an unfettered right to interrogate a small child for a lengthy period of time without his parent(s) at a minimum being notified. Again, however, this is a fact-specific inquiry and the answer will depend upon the exact facts of your case.

I would suggest contacting an attorney to get a consultation - make sure to have all the facts available. Also, keep in mind that governmental entities such as the police and public school systems are given certain additional protections in Illinois by the Governmental Employee Tort Immunity Act, and this would include a shorter statute of limitations in which you can file suit against them (1 year), and they may also be protected from certain types of suits. You may also want to see if there are any local rules/statutes/ordinances which would prevent suit against them. You can probably "google" the Tort Immunity Act and read it to see if it would prevent such a suit. In all likelihood, though, this may be a very difficult case to pursue, particularly against governmental entities who were acting in the course of their employment to investigate a crime. Best of luck to you.

Answered on 11/20/08, 2:44 pm

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