Supreme Court Declines to Take Up Education Appeals

This from the School Law blog:

The U.S. Supreme Court formally opened its new term on Monday by denying review of hundreds of appeals, including education cases involving police drug-detection dog "sniffs" of student backpacks, the participation of school resource officers in questioning of students, and student religious speech at a graduation ceremony.

The first day of the 2013-14 term took place notwithstanding the shutdown of much of the rest of the federal government. The court is operating on available funds through at least the end of this week, and possibly into next week.

The justices heard arguments Monday in a case being watched by education groups about the available remedies for age discrimination alleged by public-sector workers. 

But first, the court issued an orders list taking care of most of the appeals that had piled up during its summer recess. While the justices added some cases to their docket from that pile last week, Monday's orders included rejections of most others. In each of the below cases, the justices denied review without comment or published dissent. The denials are not rulings on the merits of the cases involved.

School Resource Officers: The court declined to take up an appeal involving whether a student is in policy custody when he is questioned by a school administrator in the presence of a school resource officer about misconduct...

The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled 4-3 in April that a high school student's statements to an assistant principal about giving prescription pills to other students had to be suppressed in a criminal proceeding because the student had not been given a Miranda warning.

In addition to facing school discipline, the student was charged with felony possession and dispensing of a controlled substance and was sentenced to 45 days in jail. The Kentucky high court's decision overturned that conviction.

The state's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in Kentucky v. N.C. (No. 13-123) was joined by the National School Boards Association and its Kentucky affiliate.They argued that the decision threatens school safety and discipline because there are many times when the questioning of students by an administrator with the involvement of an SRO could end up as either a matter of school discipline or criminal law...