Legal Question in Education Law in California

When the Special Victims Unit of the Sheriff's Department is conducting an investigation and it involves students on my campus, do they need to get consent from the student's parent to proceed with an interview? If yes, please site in California Ed Code.

Thank you.


Asked on 5/15/11, 12:26 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Andrew Harrell W. Andrew Harrell, Attorney at Law

This is a somewhat complicated question with too few facts to answer completely. For example, how old are the students? Administrators of elementary-high school campuses have different duties regarding "protecting" students than administrators of post-secondary schools. Second, it makes a significant difference if the investigation concerns a student who is a suspect or who has been charged with an offense versus a student who is merely a witness. Third, the type of offense also makes a difference. There have been instances of local police making "arrests" and "investigations" concerning perceived immigration law violations. Immigration law is strictly federal, despite what states have attempted to legislate. Thus, local police often will have no jurisdiction to make investigations or make arrests and they are trespassers on campus. If any administrator was to cooperate with such ultra vires actions, I would sue the administrator on behalf of the plaintiff for abetting a false arrest. If you are serious about dealing with the issue, you need more than someone to assist you beyond providing a cite (not site) to California statutes.

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Answered on 5/16/11, 9:38 am


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