Kentucky court says students must be given Miranda warnings if police are present

The Kentucky Supreme Court has ruled that students must be given Miranda warnings — that they have right to remain silent and to have a lawyer — if they are interviewed by principals with a school officer present. The Louisville Courier-Journal says the court's 4-3 opinion declared that a statement from a Nelson County student who admitted giving two pills to another student must be suppressed because he was not read his rights first. The student, who attended Nelson County High School in Bardstown, Ky., subsequently was convicted of illegally dispensing a controlled substance and sentenced to 45 days in jail.