Washington Post - Supreme Court confronts conflict between constitutional rights and protecting children

The following article by Robert Barnes appeared in the Febraury 27, 2011 Washington Post.

In Oregon, a 9-year-old girl was escorted from class to a school conference room, where a child-welfare caseworker and a police officer questioned her about whether her father had touched her inappropriately. After two hours of questioning, she finally said he had, a statement she later recanted.

In North Carolina, a 13-year-old was pulled out of class for a closed-door meeting with police officers and the principal, where he was urged to do the right thing and eventually implicated himself in a recent burglary. He was not given his Miranda rights because the interview at the school was not considered official police custody.

Both cases are on the Supreme Court's docket this month as justices continue to parse how the Constitution applies to children. Justices repeatedly have established "that youth are different from adults and, accordingly, should be treated differently by the courts," said Bill Grimm, senior attorney for the National Center for Youth Law in Oakland, Calif.

The rest of the article can be found at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/27/AR2011022703904.html

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Family Empowerment Program facilitator and FDC active member Toni Hoy has a new book. Read FDC Executive Director Diane Redleaf's comment in the book jacket below:

Toni Hoy is a child and family advocate par excellence. Her personal story of the battle to save her family and her son is not just her story: she both beautifully and strategically weaves her own family's heartbreaking experience into the context of the needs of children and families, generally.