COURT SAYS NO MIRANDA REQUIREMENT FOR SCHOOLS

The state's highest court reaffirmed yesterday that school officials
are not required to give students Miranda warnings before questioning
them about potentially criminal activities as part of a school
investigation.

The Supreme Judicial Court reinstated assault and battery charges
against four Springfield teenagers who allegedly hit and kicked
another student after school. The court ruled that a Juvenile Court
judge who had thrown out the charges ignored a 1992 SJC decision.

Lawyers for the teenagers had argued that the 1992 ruling, involving a
student caught with marijuana, should be overturned. Instead, the SJC
stuck by its earlier decision.

''A trip to the principal's office for an interview is not a `formal
arrest,' nor does it suggest [the student] faces such an arrest,''
Justice Roderick Ireland wrote for the court in yesterday's decision.

But Theodore F. Riordan, a lawyer for one of the students, argued
yesterday that students may not feel they can say no to questioning by
a school official.

In a related decision yesterday, the SJC again ruled that school
officials are not agents of the police and upheld a drug charge
against a Breed Middle School student in Lynn. In that case, the court
found a vice principal had probable cause to search a student who
allegedly ''reeked'' of marijuana.