Decarcerate the Garden State says this should be a teaching moment for kids.
COLLINGSWOOD -- A prison reform group is urging New Jersey education officials to teach kids about their right to remain silent to police after a string of incidents in which cops were called to a school up to 5 times a day for minor issues.
In a July 4 letter to New Jersey Department of Education Commissioner David Hespe, Decarcerate the Garden State co-founder Bob Witanek says a "personal rights awareness" subject matter should be added to the state curriculum.
Such a topic would teach students how to "assert their rights and legally protect themselves from self-incrimination and inadvertent incrimination of others" when speaking with police, Witanek writes.
Witanek's request is in response to a tiff last month between Collingswood school officials, the Collingswood police and the Camden County Prosecutor's office.
The three groups met in late May to review a state-mandated agreement that requires the schools to report criminal incidents to police after the district reportedly failed to inform police about a potential crime.
School officials said they came away from the meeting with a directive from the prosecutor's office to call 911 for even the most minor incidents, like playground bullying or racist remarks made during a third-grade class party about a brownie.
While the prosecutor's office has since said that they never directed the school officials to go beyond the normal procedures, parents -- who started a petition to urge the mayor to look into the issue -- said police were being called to the schools to interrogate their kids for routine play fighting.
"I am signing this (petition) because my seven-year-old has taken a month to get over the trauma of 'being arrested' for rough housing with his friend," wrote one parent. "He was wrong but to allow a child to believe they are being arrested by the police because of a mandatory investigation is frightening."
The miscommunication between educators and law enforcement -- which seems to have since been resolved at a follow-up meeting -- garnered national media attention after it was reported that cops were called to an elementary school's graduation party to investigate when a student made racist remarks about a brownie.
Since then, the Decarcerate the Garden State group has offered its services to students and parents to "share instructions on how to protect yourself from prosecution in school - policing and other policing matters - geared toward youth," said Witanek.
Many schools in New Jersey are staffed with police officers who serve as resource officers who may also be asked to investigate students, Witanek said.
"Students need to be advised of their right to ask for their parents and an attorney and their right to remain silent," he said.
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"Teach them how to handle themselves around cops. Also suggest to them how to posture toward the police resource officers stationed in the schools -- polite and fair treatment, but do not get too friendly and chatty with them because they could always be on the hunt for information and what you tell them could end up ruining your own or someone else's life," Witanek said.
Greg Adomaitis may be reached at gadomaitis@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregAdomaitis. Find NJ.com on Facebook.