Working out the details won’t be easy, but Rep. Linda Gray believes school boards across the state need a consistent policy on notifying parents when police are questioning their children in school.

Ms. Gray, R-10, is sponsor of H2124, a measure that in its original incarnation would specify the types of information about crime incidents on campus that must be reported to the state by schools for their annual “report card.”

That provision of the bill remains, but H2124, under a Senate amendment that was approved, would allow school boards to adopt policies on notification to parents when police are questioning students in school.

Ms. Gray said April 29 that the issue is a “real world problem,” in light of the state Supreme Court ruling on April 23 that overturned a Tucson high school student’s juvenile conviction on weapons charges because police refused to let the boy’s mother attend an interrogation conducted at school.

Lawmakers Seek AG Opinion

Rep. Linda Lopez, D-29, and Sen. Slade Mead, R-20, have asked Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard for an official opinion on whether parents must give their consent before police may question students in school. Some months ago, Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley startled school officials by saying that it’s a “myth” that police must get permission from parents before questioning students. After the state high court’s ruling, Mr. Romley said there are circumstances in which police must obtain a parent’s permission, but there is no absolute requirement to do so in all cases.

Ms. Gray agrees with that view, although she concedes that working out the details of “when and where and in what instances school boards have to get involved to notify parents won’t be easy to put into specific language.”

Senate Minority Whip Pete Rios, D-23, whose amendment would allow school boards to adopt parental notification policies, said the policies need to reflect the wishes of local school districts. But Ms. Gray said she would prefer to see a policy worked out that would be consistent throughout the state, rather than allowing school boards to choose whether to deal with the issue at all, as Mr. Rios’s amendment would do.

“Parents need to be notified in most instances, and since the school board is ultimately responsible for students while they’re in school, they need to be prepared to deal with this,” Ms. Gray said. On the other hand, “there are going to be times when police and the schools don’t need a parent’s permission to talk to their child — parents don’t need to be notified if [police] are trying to prevent a Columbine-like problem,” she said, referring to the 1999 shooting spree by two students in Colorado that left 12 students and a teacher dead. The two teen-age gunmen killed themselves after the shootings.

“How long do you have to wait for a parent to be notified, and how long do you have to wait for the parent to show up?” are just two of the many questions that Ms. Gray said she wants answered before requiring school boards to adopt a notification policy. —