In re DD

554 S.E.2d 346

146 NC App. 309

In the Matter of D.D.

No. COA00-947.

Court of Appeals of North Carolina.

October 2, 2001.

Attorney General Michael F. Easley, by Assistant Attorney General George K. Hurst, for the State.

UNC Clinical Programs, by Joseph E. Kennedy, Chapel Hill, for juvenile-appellant.

TIMMONS-GOODSON, Judge.

D.D. ("juvenile") appeals from an order adjudicating her delinquent and placing her on a one-year period of supervised probation. For the reasons herein stated, we affirm juvenile's adjudication of delinquency.

On 15 February 2000, a petition was filed alleging that juvenile was delinquent, in that she "unlawfully, willfully did possess[ ] a knife on educational property, Hillside High School ("Hillside")" in violation of North Carolina General Statutes section 14-269.2(d). During 4 April 2000 adjudication hearing, juvenile moved to suppress the knife referenced in the petition. Pursuant to juvenile's motion, the trial court conducted a voir dire of Hillside's principal, Hermitage Hicks ("Principal Hicks"), and juvenile.

Principal Hicks testified that on 11 January 2000, a substitute teacher overheard a conversation among a group of students during in-school suspension and related the substance of that conversation to the principal. According to the substitute teacher, a group of girls was coming onto Hillside's campus to fight at the end of the school day. The substitute teacher further related to Principal Hicks the name of one Hillside student who the students noted would be involved in the fight.

In response to the teacher's comments, Principal Hicks "got with" Hillside's resource officer, Officer May, approximately ten minutes prior to the end of the school day and "made him aware of what the situation was." Officer May and Principal Hicks stationed themselves at opposite ends of the Hillside school building.

As Principal Hicks observed the front end of campus from his office, he noticed four female students in the parking lot. Principal Hicks testified that the females' presence in the lot was unusual for that time of the day, because students were not allowed in that parking lot without permission from an administrator. Principal Hicks recognized only one of the females as a Hillside student.

Principal Hicks stated that the parking lot was property of Hillside and only senior students, faculty, and visitors were authorized to park in the lot. A city bus stopped in the parking lot and thus, non-students could board buses from the lot.

Principal Hicks "gathered" Officer May, and two other police officers, Officers Burwell and McDonald, and the four men walked to the parking lot. Principal Hicks referred to Officer May as the school resource officer. The principal referred to Officers Burwell and McDonald as off-duty officers and specifically stated that Officer Burwell was "employed in our school." Officer Burwell later testified at the adjudication hearing that he was the city police officer assigned to Hillside as a "security officer." Juvenile testified on voir dire that the officers were in uniform and were carrying guns.

By the time the principal and the officers reached the lot, Hillside students had been dismissed from their classes and were filtering into the parking lot. According to Principal Hicks, when he and the officers arrived in the lot, the officers "allowed" him to confront the students. Principal Hicks then inquired of the Hillside student what she was doing in the parking lot. The student told the principal that she "had had an appointment and that she had met these three girls that were with her up at the bus stop on Fayetteville Street and they had walked to school with her. But she was just coming to get her books out of her locker."

According to Principal Hicks, the Hillside student stated that she knew she was in an unauthorized area. As Principal Hicks confronted the Hillside student, the other three girls "became very talkative" and one of them became "profane and vulgar." According to Principal Hicks, the females had a "don't careish [sic] attitude," and he and the officers "had to listen to all this back talk." The principal further recalled that the students "were joking about not being in school." As the students "kept trying to walk away," the officers "were there to tell them to `hold on.'" Principal Hicks testified that while he questioned the girls, other than telling the students to "hold on," he could not remember the officers speaking to the students, as "they are there to assist [school officials] and that we are in control of the school. So we should be the front person in that kind of thing."

Principal Hicks then began to ask the girls for their names. The principal used a cellular telephone to call the Durham Public Schools' central office and determined that the names given by the students were false. He then asked the three girls for the name of the school they attended. Principal Hicks testified that he called the school referenced by the three girls, and determined that they did not go to that particular school. Principal Hicks then testified that he called "the Learning Center," and confirmed that the girls attended "the Learning Center." Principal Hicks further attempted to contact the Learning Center's principal, but was unable to do so at that time. Principal Hicks testified that he was not going to let the girls leave because:

Based on the information that I had within my mind and my frame of thought at that particular time, I knew of no school in our school system that would have dismissed and allowed students to have been on my campus at that time.

And I feel an obligation when they are on my campus to call and try to see where they should be in school.... [I was not going to let them leave] `[t]ill I got some information as to where they attended school and why they were not in school.

In addition, Principal Hicks testified that he had "to make reports when [he found] students from another school on [his] campus like that." The principal likewise expressed concern that because he was aware that when students come on the school's campus to fight, "sometimes they bring things to use."

At some point during the encounter, Officer May requested permission from one of the female students, S.J., to search her purse. Principal Hicks testified that he did not remember specifically where the search of S.J.'s purse took place, either later in his office or in the parking lot. Juvenile subsequently testified on voir dire that the search of the purse occurred in the parking lot and that before S.J. could give Officer May her purse, the officer "grabbed" the purse from S.J.'s shoulder. Upon searching the purse, the officer discovered a box cutter.

The principal and the officers "took the four [girls] over to [his] office." Principal Hicks testified that from the time he and the officers first confronted the students until they left for the office, the students had moved a third of the way across the parking lot toward the street.

Upon arriving in his office, Principal Hicks contacted the principal of what he called the "Alternative School." As he was receiving the necessary information from the other school, Principal Hicks told the officers, "Since I have information that they were coming here to fight, then I think I have a reason to ask them what they have on their persons." The officers agreed, and Principal Hicks asked juvenile and the other girls to empty their pockets. Subsequent trial testimony revealed the juvenile had a knife in her pocket, which she placed on the principal's desk. Officer Burwell later testified at the adjudication hearing that he and Principal Hicks made the decision to charge juvenile.

Juvenile testified on voir dire that school had just let out of session when she and the other individuals entered campus. She further testified that prior to being approached by the principal and the three officers, she was leaving to go home via the city bus that stopped in the parking lot. According to juvenile, she and two of the other girls were enrolled at the "High School Learning Center" and that she had attended school that day. Juvenile testified that the female students who came onto the Hillside campus after school had been dismissed for the purpose of allowing the one Hillside student to retrieve her possessions. Juvenile stated that she remained in the parking lot because she missed the bus, and she and the other females were crossing the street to catch another bus. Juvenile further stated that when the group was approached by Principal Hicks and the officers, they were attempting to leave the lot.

Following juvenile's voir dire testimony and arguments from counsel, the trial court denied juvenile's motion to suppress. The court concluded the following:

The case [New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325, 105 S.Ct. 733, 83 L.Ed.2d 720 (1985) ] does not apply. Those were not students of Mr. Hicks [sic].

However, you have to look at the facts as they existed at the time of Mr. Hicks [sic] and the subsequent activity.

Mr. Hicks has a right to talk to any person who is not a student who is on Hillside property, which is what he did.

[Juvenile's] testimony is that the bus was gone. She was not there for the bus. They were leaving because they had missed that bus. They weren't on the property for the purpose of obtaining a ride from the bus. She testified to that herself.

So, she is on school property. She is not a student at Hillside. He knows that she is not a student at Hillside. That was his testimony. And he does have a right to talk to anybody who is a potential trespasser on the school property. He talked to her.

She has no standing to contest the search of [S.J.'s] purse. None whatsoever. A weapon was discovered in [S.J.'s] purse. [Juvenile] was with [S.J.].

And so I agree, the detention of non-students in the school was in that nature of an arrest. They were detained without permission to leave and

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