Police Detained And Questioned 9 Y.o. Without Notifying Parents.

So this is a little complicated and long. Keep in mind that this happened in NY state which has its own laws about minors and police interrogations.

Yesterday at 2pm I received a call from my child’s elementary school. They were calling me just to Inform me of an incident that took place regarding my 9 year old, who is on the spectrum, high functioning and mainly social interactions and extreme anxiety. The school is accusing my son of entering a classroom, and as they put it “made a prank 911 hang up call” then left like nothing happened. They said they have him on camera entering said classroom and walking out. What they failed to mention is he went into the class room to find his 3 small stuff toys he left behind. Which you can clearly see on the video from the hallway. I’ll say this, I have high doubts that my child, who has never even used a “normal” phone, decided to pick up the receiver, dial 9, then 911 and hang up. Most adults can’t figure out how to dial an outside line. Either way, that’s not why I’m here. It’s what happened after this.

This was at dismissal, which is why he was so worried about finding his stuffed animals before leaving school. On his was to the bus, he was pulled aside and brought into the main office, placed in a room alone and was told he was not allowed to leave until he was told. Shortly after, his two teachers, and a town police officer enter the room and begin to question and accuse my child of making this call. Now I can’t express how much anxiety my child suffers from due to the Autism. It’s a struggle just to get him to school each day. So now he is alone, with 2 teachers and an officer being accused of something. When the officer asked him if he made the call, my child said no. Yet they proceeded to grill him as if he was an adult in an effort to coerce him to say yes. Eventually they let him leave, as they held his bus for him. Now this is the part why I am here; my spouse nor myself were ever notified of this incident until well AFTER he had been released from school. When they did call, they laughed it off like it wasn’t a problem and even said “it’s not a big deal” but immediately said “but we are going to write him up”. I’m sorry, what? Now I’m pissed.

According to NYS law family court law 305.2 section 3,

1. If an officer takes such child into custody or if a child is delivered to him under section 305.1, he shall immediately notify the parent or other person legally responsible for the child's care, or if such legally responsible person is unavailable the person with whom the child resides, that the child has been taken into custody.

And before you say it, the school teacher is not a legal guardian who is able to make legal decisions for a minor, especially when they are the accusing party.

Another few items to take into consideration, in NYS it is law that all interviews between minors and officers must be video recorded without exception, and since the “detained” him, without the option to freely leave, the officer was supposed to technically read him his rights. Both of which never happened. I understand my son probably wouldn’t understand what was happening anyway but he is a 9 yo rain man who can name all of the past world leaders in every country so he very well might know.

In the end, when I picked him up at afterschool, he didn’t even mention it. Because to him, he didn’t do anything wrong and was more worried about his toys. He doesn’t lie, never has. My wife sent an email to the main principal who wasn’t in the building and was unaware. She told us she would be reaching out first thing to fix this. The Only one to email or contact us today was his teacher, who was still accusing him and wanted to know if we had any insight as to why he would do this. We haven’t responded.

Oh I should mention one week ago my son fell off the schools unsafe playground and broke his arm on school grounds during recess.

I know what the officer did was illegal, but should I hold the school accountable for allowing this interaction to take place without notifying us before anyone spoke to him?