The Coalition to Reform School Discipline is asking the Baltimore school board to create a new version of the Miranda warning to use in the event that they place students under arrest.
The coalition, which includes Open Society grantees NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, ACLU of Maryland, the Public Defender’s Office, and Disability Rights Maryland, wants school police to use more straight-forward, less legalistic language.
At a recent school board meeting, juvenile public defender Neeta Pal read a suggestion of language that could replace the standard “You have the right to remain silent…” The new version, implemented in Seattle’s King County last year, includes phrases like, “It’s OK if you don’t want to talk to me” and “you have the right to talk to a free lawyer right now.”
