Adult interrogation methods do not belong in the classroom, so why are school administrators throughout the United States being trained to use them on their students in order to extract confessions? 
The School Administrators Association of New York and the Illinois Principals Association were found to have engaged in interrogation classes and workshops derived from, Reid & Associates, the world’s largest interrogation training company that is consulted by hundreds of Educators each year. An event titled “Investigative Interviewing and Active Persuasion” which offers “professional development” practices for school administrators was available to the Illinois Principals last month. The New York State educators offered a class of the same subject but titled it a bit different by using “Are you Sure They Are Telling the Truth”?
The “Reid Technique” which is being taught concentrates on “maximization” and “minimization” psychological tactics to coax the subjects to produce a confession. The Minimization pinpoints on the reduction of a person’s guilty feelings. With Maximization the goal is to raise the anxiety of the person with the utilization of harsh confrontation. These brash interrogation tactics are legal and extremely intimidating.
These ‘Reid’ interrogation techniques were researched and practiced and not only do they increase the chance that a guilty party will confess but these methods also increase the chance of an innocent person will confess to something that he or she was not engaged in. Recent studies have also shown that these ‘Reid’ tactics also persuade witness to incriminate random people who were not guilty of anything.
Caution is strongly advised by Reid & Associates using their techniques on children, specifically in schools. The deeply concerning educator administered interrogations are the ones where fairness is involved, the school administrators are not required by law give the Miranda warning to the children that they interrogate in the school without police presence so the children are not advised of their rights to have a lawyer present or their 5th Amendment right to remain silent. The absence of a parent or guardian is also very alarming, leaving them alone and afraid.
Law enforcement officers are already trained and well versed in extracting confessions from vulnerable juveniles which corrals them directly into the criminal justice system.
Juvenile’s coerced and pressured confessions align with specific traits: the use of intimidation, promises of leniency, threats and blatant lies, so that interrogated youths feel that their only way out of this torture is by confessing. Aggressive adult interrogators exploit the fact that juveniles are much less mature and easily cave to the overbearing pressure, and to make decisions in their best interest is clouded with the lack of experience. A high percentage of the young boys and girls that are in the criminal justice system have psychological disorders. The young are more likely to give false confessions more than adults because of “status differential” the younger people feel it more necessary to comply and answer questions from the police because their feelings and fears of the heightened position of authority these armed thugs portray.
The main objective of these mind-piercing interrogations by officials and staff of the nations schools are only targeted to serve one purpose, and that is to stimulate the flow of our country’s youth directly from the state-run public schools to the state-run jails and penitentiaries. Merely based on broken school rules these kids become scarred by criminalization, specifically the poor, LGBTQ, black and Hispanic children, they unfortunately fall into the highest percentage of the victims.
Instead of adopting these interrogation training techniques, schools would be more productive on these growing children and focus on more ethical methods like mentorship, non-biased and more sympathetic behavior modifications. There is always a different way to do things besides these harsh iron-fisted tactics that are designed for enemy combatants and traitors. These are America’s youth we don’t need to start them out this way. Another reason the Homeschool wave is growing, which is a very positive immediate escape the ever-growing indoctrination.
By Andre’ Gabriel Esparza – DontComply.com
