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 last month that the student 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 and 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., was eventually expelled. He was charged with felony possession and dispensing of a controlled substance and was sentenced to 45 days in jail.
His appeal to the state supreme court argued that admitting his statements to the assistant principal violated his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination.
