{"id":34691,"date":"2018-09-10T16:38:02","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T21:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=34691"},"modified":"2018-09-10T16:38:16","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T21:38:16","slug":"ca9-arrest-of-alleged-bullying-middle-school-girls-to-prove-a-point-and-make-them-mature-a-lot-faster-was-unreasonable-under-t-l-o","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=34691","title":{"rendered":"CA9: School resource officer’s arrest of alleged bullying middle school girls \u2018to prove a point\u2019 and \u2018make [them] mature a lot faster\u2019 was unreasonable under T.L.O.<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arresting middle school girls for alleged bullying and fighting at school violated the Fourth Amendment and was unreasonable: \u201cAfter concluding that the girls were unresponsive and disrespectful, the deputy arrested the girls \u2018to prove a point\u2019 and \u2018make [them] mature a lot faster.\u2019\u201d Scott v. County of San Bernardino<\/a>, 16-55518 (9th Cir. Sep. 10, 2018). Summary by the court:
\n<\/p>\n

The panel affirmed the district court\u2019s summary judgment in an action brought by three middle school girls who alleged that a Sheriff\u2019s deputy arrested them on campus without probable cause, in violation of their Fourth Amendment rights and state law.<\/p>\n

The middle school\u2019s assistant school principal had asked the Sheriff\u2019s deputy, a school resource officer, to counsel a group of girls who had been involved in ongoing incidents of bullying and fighting. After concluding that the girls were unresponsive and disrespectful, the deputy arrested the girls \u201cto prove a point\u201d and \u201cmake [them] mature a lot faster.\u201d <\/p>\n

Applying the two-part reasonableness test set forth in New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325, 333 (1985), the panel held that the arrests were unreasonable because they were not justified at their inception nor reasonably related in scope to the circumstances. The panel held that the summary arrest, handcuffing, and police transport to the station of the middle school girls was a disproportionate response to the school\u2019s need, which was dissipation of what the school officials characterized as an \u201congoing feud\u201d and \u201ccontinuous argument\u201d between the students. The panel further held that police officers were not entitled to qualified immunity because no reasonable officer could have reasonably believed that the law authorizes the arrest of a group of middle schoolers in order to teach them a lesson or to prove a point.<\/p>\n

The panel held that the evidence was insufficient to create probable cause to arrest the students for violating California Penal Code \u00a7 415(1) or Cal. Welf. & Inst. Code \u00a7 601(a), and that plaintiffs were entitled to summary judgment in their favor on their state false arrest claim.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arresting middle school girls for alleged bullying and fighting at school violated the Fourth Amendment and was unreasonable: \u201cAfter concluding that the girls were unresponsive and disrespectful, the deputy arrested the girls \u2018to prove a point\u2019 and \u2018make [them] mature … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arrest-or-entry-on-arrest","category-school-searches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34691"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34693,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34691\/revisions\/34693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}