To the editor:

Your recent article concerning the Lawrence Police officer’s transport of a local teenager from his job at McDonald’s to an interrogation room at the police station, with the local police chief’s full subsequent approval, makes clear that it is standard operating procedure for local police officers to transport and interrogate minors, without parental notification.

A child has the right in most instances to refuse to answer an officer’s questions, but most children, of course, do not know their legal rights.

The recent J-W article regarding 17-year-old Jason Hawkins’ police interrogation points to this troubling aspect of Kansas law :quot; that police may interrogate children, without parental notification, provided the children are 14 years or older. Youths who may be several years away from being allowed to attend an R-rated movie on their own can nevertheless be taken downtown for questioning on their own, and without their parents even being notified :quot; with the full endorsement of Police Chief Ron Olin, who referred to Hawkins’ interrogation as being handled with the utmost professionalism.

If young children are expected to know their rights and be able to handle a police interrogation without their parents being notified, we as parents better inform our children of their legal rights, most importantly their right to remain silent and to not talk with the police, until first speaking with their parents and with their attorney.

Talk to your children about their rights under the U.S. Constitution. Tell them that they have the right to say no to the search of their car when they are pulled over for a minor traffic violation; that they have the right to say no to the search of their parents’ home when their parents are not there; that they have the right to say no to a police officer who wants to take them downtown to answer some questions about lint discovered in the officer’s chicken strips.

Rick Frydman,

Lawrence