Secret Service Interrogation of 2 Students Sparks Furor
OAKLAND — An interrogation by U.S. Secret Service agents of two high school students here for allegedly threatening President Bush has resulted in a barrage of criticism against the Secret Service and some school officials. The case has added impetus to a bill before the state Assembly that would require school officials to inform students of their rights before they are questioned by law enforcement officials.
The alleged threat by two 16-year-old boys at Oakland High School was reported to Secret Service officials in San Francisco by their former English teacher, Sandy Whitney.
Whitney called the Secret Service the day after a class discussion where she allegedly heard one of the students say, "We need a sniper to take care of Bush" and the other reply, "Yeah, I'd do it," according to published reports.
Whitney did not return phone calls. According to a representative of Whitney's union, the teacher is not talking to the media on the advice of Oakland High School Principal Clement Mok. Mok also declined to comment.
The two sophomores, who have not been identified, have denied threatening Bush and said they were just joking around during a routine class discussion on current affairs.
"They were traumatized by the ordeal," said Larry Felson, a teacher at Oakland High School who was contacted by the students after the April 23 questioning. "The agents used profanity and made threats against their immigrant parents. They were told, 'You don't have any
According to Felson, each student was "grilled for 45 minutes to an hour" in the principal's office and Mok sat in on the questioning. "The principal clearly should have contacted the parents immediately. He didn't even talk to them until three weeks later."
"That's just outrageous," said Greg Hodge, president of the Oakland School Board. "If one of my kids were to make an inappropriate comment, I would certainly want to be called first, before the Secret Service."
Gen Fujioka, an attorney with San Francisco-based Asian Law Caucus, who is providing legal advice to the two students, believes Whitney "overreacted" and the Secret Service agents "acted way out of bounds."
"The kids were told that their parents could be deported," Fujioka said. "It left them traumatized."
John Gill, a special agent with the Secret Service in Washington, D.C., confirmed that the two students were questioned.
