Wednesday, January 23, 2002
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Wednesday, January 23, 2002 |
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NAACP leader: Schools pass the civil rights test By DAVE
HAMRICK
Fayette County educators appear to be acting properly in enforcing their rights to question students in the absence of their parents, says a local civil rights leader. "We have not received any calls and that probably means that no violations have occurred," said the Rev. Ed Johnson, president of the Fayette County Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The legal concept of in loco parentis gives educators the authority to assume the role of parents when students have to be questioned about disciplinary or legal problems, Johnson said. He recently issued an invitation, through The Citizen's Opinion page, to parents who believe that educators had overstepped their authority, to phone the NAACP. Johnson emphasized that the invitation was not just for minority students, but for all students. If educators were to interview students without advising them of their rights to have attorneys or parents present, and then turned the information over to police, that would be a violation of their authority, Johnson said. "We were just seeking to obtain some data to assess whether the Board of Education, the schools and teachers, were applying the rule of in loco parentis properly," he said. He added that following the rules is especially important when resource officers, who are sworn police officers, interview students. If there's any chance of criminal charges being filed, the students must be informed of their rights, he said. "We have been working in cooperation with the Board of Education" and officials, Johnson said, adding that he believes it's part of the role of the NAACP to make sure people's civil rights are not being violated. "I'm confident that this is the case" in Fayette schools, he added.
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