To all parents of school-age children attending Wyoming public schools, beware: Wyoming law enforcement can and will pull your children out of class to interview them without your permission.
You may wonder to yourself: but don’t they need my permission to talk to my child? And the answer is, surprisingly, no. They can just do it.
You may further wonder: but they need to at least notify me, right? Nope. They might tell you after the fact, but not beforehand.
You may then ask: but is my child’s statements admissible against her or another person? Answer: probably yes.
Wyoming has no law or regulation that requires parent permission before police talk to kids. Nor does Wyoming law grant parents some power to object to police interviews of kids at school.
So what can you do?
Teach your child about her constitutional right to remain silent in the face of police questioning. I have had parents report that police and school officials have threatened children with disciplinary consequences if they do not talk. As despicable as those threats are, they do not trump your kid’s right to remain silent which is firmly embedded in the federal and state constitution. That means, these threats may actually make your kid’s later incriminating statements inadmissible or subject the school and law enforcement to civil liability.
You’ll notice this post is citation free. Not my norm. But that’s because this post is based on experience and the absence of law.
Maybe we should nudge our Legislature to think about whether we want the police to be interrupting our kids’ education to interview them without parental notification and consent.
Justice for Cowboys 