Legal Question in Education Law in Indiana

child forced to sign a paper admitting wrong without parent.

A drug search at my sons high shcool led to them finding a empty prescription bottle in someone else name(a friend of his). It had contained a narctic called vicodine. He was told to tell the truth in exchange for only being suspended for a term instead of a whole year.He amitted to buying two of the pills and taking them for knee pain. He was then forced to write a confession and sign it without parental guidance! My son did not know it was a narcotic and elligal. He knows he was wrong for taking another pesons medicens.He is a 15 yearold sophmore with great grades! My question is can we demand the confession paper back and fight this?


Asked on 1/06/02, 2:00 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Dorene Philpot Philpot Law Office

Re: child forced to sign a paper admitting wrong without parent.

I believe you have some Fourth Amendment issues, and you should know that a confession of a juvenile under those circumstances would not be admissible in a criminal trial setting.

However, you should also know that his offense is potentially a Class D felony. If the school has not contacted the prosecutor, I wouldn't squeal too much about the punishment at school. If you make too much noise, the school could retaliate by pursuing some kind of criminal action.

I know it's hard because your son sounds like a good kid, but you're probably stuck w/the situation as is, though if you're cooperative, you might get the school to soften its stance.

Good luck to you.

Read more
Answered on 1/10/02, 8:50 am


Related Questions & Answers

More Education Law questions and answers in Indiana