Plan to Advise Students of Rights Debated : Moorpark: An officer warns that the proposed school board policy could interfere with investigations and lead to arrests.

The Moorpark school board is considering a new policy instructing school administrators to advise students of their constitutional rights before allowing sheriff’s deputies to question them on campus.

But Moorpark’s top law enforcement officer warned that school administrators carrying out such a policy could be arrested for interfering with a police investigation.

“I simply believe there’s nothing wrong with informing a student of their rights,” said school board member Pam Castro during a contentious debate on the subject Tuesday night. “I’m trying to reduce the intimidation factor when an officer comes in.”

Yet Supt. Tom Duffy said the district’s legal counsel and the Sheriff’s Department interpret such a consultation as interfering with a police investigation, an act which could lead to arrest.

“We have to expect the police agency to know what they are doing,” Duffy told the board. “It’s troubling for me to compel an administrator to get in the way of an officer and a student,” he said.

“How in heaven’s name can it be getting in the way of an officer to make sure that someone understands their legal standing?” board member Tom Baldwin replied. “This is America. We take our constitutional rights very seriously, and I can’t, for the life of me, picture a situation where an officer wouldn’t want a student to understand the situation they’re in.”

Lt. Geoff Dean, head of the Sheriff’s Department’s enforcement in Moorpark, said before the meeting that school officials who take it upon themselves to tell students they don’t have to respond to an officer’s questions will risk arrest.

“If an administrator interferes with an investigation, they’re going to be arrested,” Dean said. “If the board doesn’t let us interview students on campus, we’re going to have to arrest them all (students) and bring them to the station.”

Dean said deputies visit Moorpark schools to question or arrest students about twice a week, on average, and have had a good working relationship with the district and the administrators. He said a move by some board members to over-regulate the process could lead to problems.

“They want the school administrator to take on a stronger role than even a parent has,” Dean said. “A parent doesn’t have the right to take the juvenile aside and say, ‘You don’t have to tell this person anything.’ ”

The hourlong debate ended with a request that Duffy ask the district’s lawyer whether there is legal precedent that would allow administrators to apprise students of their rights before they submit to questioning.

Under the district’s current policy, first adopted in 1981 and revised two years ago, school administrators are instructed to notify parents by telephone when an officer arrives to question or arrest their child. Dean said he had no objections to the current policy, which also instructs administrators to remain with the student during questioning.

But some members of the school board say they don’t want deputies on campus to begin with and that creating stricter guidelines for the questioning of students is a way to deter officers from schoolyard interrogations.

“I’m of the opinion that you shouldn’t use the school as the convenient way to find a student and ask them about some vandalism or petty theft,” Baldwin said recently. “If you’ve got a hot lead on a hot case, then, by all means, come onto campus.”

Dean said tracking down students at school is a time-efficient method of investigation and is increasingly necessary as gang problems and vandalism have escalated in recent years.

“We don’t want to come on campus for negative reasons if we don’t have to,” he said. “If Mr. Baldwin wants to call it a convenience, he can call it whatever he wants. I guess I would call it the most efficient and expeditious way of solving a crime.”