re: 13 year old student suspended, cuffed, arrested for being politically incorrect

quote:

---

“There is no authority requiring a school administrator not acting on behalf of law enforcement officials to furnish Miranda warnings. Even if we were to assume that, during the questioning in the principal’s office, the environment was coercive because Snyder was in custody (or because his freedom was significantly restricted) and that, therefore, Miranda warnings would be required if the questioning had been by the police (see Commonwealth v. Bryant,390 Mass. 729, 737 [1984]), Principal Day and Assistant Principal Canning were not law enforcement officials or agents of such officials. The Miranda rule does not apply to a private citizen or school administrator who is acting neither as an instrument of the police nor as an agent of the police pursuant to a scheme to elicit statements from the defendant by coercion or guile. See Commonwealth v. Allen,395 Mass. 448, 453-454 (1985); Commonwealth v. A Juvenile, supra at 278-279. The fact that the school administrators had every intention of turning the marihuana over to the police does not make them agents or instrumentalities of the police in questioning Snyder.”

---