Students Entitled to Miranda Warnings, Says Kentucky Court

Kids, take advantage of that right to remain silent

A high school student's statements to an assistant principal about giving prescription pills to other students had to be suppressed in a criminal proceeding because the student had not been given a Miranda warning, Kentucky's highest court has ruled.

The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the student was in custody when he was questioned by the assistant principal in the presence of a sheriff's deputy who served as the school resource officer. Thus, he should have been given the familiar warnings from the U.S. Supreme Court's 1966 ruling in Miranda v. Arizona about the right to remain silent, the right to counsel, and that any statements he made could be used against him.

The student, a juvenile identified in court papers as N.C., made several incriminating statements to the assistant principal about possessing hydrocodone pills and giving two of them to another student. "I did something stupid," the student said.