Hunt V. State Case Study

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In another case, Hunt v. State (2013), Delaware State Trooper David Pritchett was asked by the Vice Principal of Richard A. Shields Elementary School to talk to a small group of fifth graders who were in "in-school suspension" about bullying on January 30, 2008. Pritchett was completing a four month SRO (School Resource Officer) assignment for the School District. The day after Pritchett's presentation, one of the students informed an administrator that another fifth grade student had taken money from an autistic student on the bus. The vice principal contacted the mother of the student who had taken the money, asking permission to have the SRO come to school and talk to the student, the student's mother gave consent. Both the vice principal and the SRO pulled the student into the reading lab for questioning. During this time, the vice …show more content…

. . took a dollar. I know that you didn’t do that. You're not in any trouble. I just need you to be brave and come in here. When I tell you -- when I tell the story of what’s happened and I look at you, you just say no, you didn’t do it . . . ." (Hunt v. State, 2013). During the questioning, the door was closed, and Hunt was told that if he was lying he could be arrested among other things. Hunt claimed that Pritchett used a harsh voice and made the threat of arresting him 11-12 times. After Pritchett looked at the other student and told that student to look at Hunt who was about to cry. The student admitted that he, not Hunt, was the one who took the money. Pritchett praised and complimented Hunt and asked if he wanted him to call his parents, but Hunt declined. When he got home, he informed his mother of what happened and was then withdrawn from school for 18 months. Because the questioning in this case was unreasonably seized and intentionally used to frightened Hunt, in order to teach another student a lesson, this was considered a violation of his Fourth Amendment

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