Students Sue School After Being Asked to Participate In Drug Sting

Do you think that the students SHOULD sue their school?

In early 2013, an employee at Clovis North High School, Kelly Racca, asked two students to participate in a drug bust to help stop drugs being sold inside or on the property of the school. Hopefully eliminating marijuana selling at the school, she came up with a plan for the two students, but after things got awry, the students are now suing the school for after being interrogated by police and threatened with arrest.

Racca didn't get the consent from police to organize the sting or from their parents, and more importantly, she didn't tell either student that the plan was illegal. Arguably, she was just trying to make the school a better place, but did she have the authority to "pull the trigger" on such a plan? To protect the students, as they are underage, the story masks their true names by naming them John and Mary.

John used the money to buy marijuana from a student on campus; Mary photographed the transaction. The students later turned over the marijuana and the photograph to Racca.

The following day, Mary was called out of class and interrogated by Clovis police officers. After writing her account of the drug buy and waiting in Student Services for hours, she was allowed to leave without being arrested.

According to the Fresno Bee, neither the school nor the police notified the students' parents. School officials and police reportedly failed to advise Mary of her right to a lawyer, as well as of her of her right to refuse to answer potentially incriminating questions.

School officials and police officers called John into a conference room, advised him of his Miranda rights, and proceeded to question him. His pleas to contact his father were apparently ignored, and he was not allowed to leave the conference room.

Days later, Mary was again called out of class, this time to write an incident report about the drug purchase. The lawsuit states that Racca pleaded with Mary to retract her statements about Racca “orchestrating the sting operation.”

Now the students are suing the school due to “potentially expose Mary and John as witnesses…and subject them to ridicule and harassment by other students and potential physical harm by drug-related gang groups.” What do you think?