In re R.M.

R.M., a “mouthy 17-year-old high school student with an abysmal school attendance record,” refused to get out of bed. Her mother called the school’s diversion officer, who had worked with R.M. previously. Officers drove her to school. Standing in the parking lot, she refused to obey a deputy’s order to go inside to class; she started to leave. She was then handcuffed, arrested and escorted to juvenile hall where she was held for two days. The juvenile court sustained allegations that R.M. violated Penal Code 148 by resisting, delaying or obstructing a peace officer in performing his duties. It declared her a delinquent ward of the juvenile court under Welfare and Institutions Code 602,1 ordered her confined for 15 days to juvenile hall, and then placed on probation. The court of appeal reversed the jurisdictional finding. R.M. did not violate Penal Code 148, because the deputy was not performing a legal duty when he ordered her to class. “However well-intentioned the officer no doubt was, and despite the difficult predicament in which school authorities were placed,” the proper recourse was for school officials to pursue a declaration of wardship under section 601(b) for habitual truancy (which they eventually did), not resort to the criminal law. View "In re R.M." on Justia Law