Which was the whole point the teacher was making - you have a right to not incriminate yourself (by giving a false answer or not answering), even when asked by authority figures (judges, police, teachers) to do so.

A lot of people feel that they must fill in every value of every form "or else". While really, if you value your privacy you should ask if every value is really required.

You don't actually have the right to provide false answers in many situations and doing so could actually be a crime.

I heard somewhere that lying to police is punishable by something like three years in jail in the US. Unless you killed someone or are a repeat offender, lying may well get you a harsher sentence than your original crime.

And of course, it's very easy to lie accidentally: You may honestly be confused, mis-remember, make a mistake, or tell them a true fact that doesn't fit with incorrect information they obtained from another source. Especially under the stress of being suspected, investigated, arrested, etc.

Rule one of dealing with the police: Don't help them under any circumstances. Shut up and lawyer up immediately.

For more information, watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc

I believe that lying to federal officials is the serious problem. There was a recent story (sorry don't have the link handy) which can be summed up by saying don't speak to any federal officials, even if they say it's just an "interview" and not an interrogation, without your lawyer present, and a recorder running.

I'm not sure what the ramifications would be of a minor lying on a survey administered by school administrators. I doubt if students could be charged with a crime for lying under these circumstances, but I can envision other problems if students admitted to drug or alcohol use on a survey that identified them by name.

> I doubt if students could be charged with a crime for lying under these circumstances

Probably not. The comment I replied to was saying that choosing to lie instead of self-incriminate is sometimes a crime, and I was elaborating on that.

> federal officials

This advice applies to state and local officials, too.

> I'm not sure what the ramifications would be of a minor lying on a survey administered by school administrators

Probably nothing.

> other problems if students admitted to drug or alcohol use on a survey that identified them by name.

Yes, if the survey results ever get out, they might later be used as evidence. Don't say it's not possible -- the police might find an excuse to subpoena the results and get a lax judge to sign off on it, and I seriously doubt that school officials would be willing to go to jail for their students by not complying. Or the results could be stolen, leaked, or hacked.

It's rather sad that a discussion of public education policies has gone in this direction. (I'm not criticizing your thoughtful post.) I really doubt that even public school teachers are accorded such deference in the law, but probably the ubiquitous "resource officers" are. Which is of course an excellent reason for children never to talk to them. If I thought education were the purpose of "public education", I would be quite puzzled.

It varies based on the jurisdiction. It is illegal to lie to federal law enforcement. There may not be laws against lying to state and local police (though I would imagine there are other laws that would be easy to break by lying to them).

The system is designed so that each crime breaks multiple laws, and the laws are easily broken. Keira Wilmot faced multiple felonies, for example. She broke the law when she didn't immediately report her crime to the authorities.

> laws are easily broken

The video I linked discusses this very issue for a few minutes starting at 5:20.

At 6:55 he talks about how possession of a lobster can be illegal: "It doesn't matter if he's dead or alive. It doesn't matter if you killed it or it died of natural causes. It doesn't even matter if you acted in self defense! Did you know that? Did you know it could be a federal offense to be in possession of a lobster? Raise your hand if you did not know that. [audience raises hands] There's the problem!"

The whole video is witty and informative, and IMHO definitely worth watching.

False statements to the feds carry a 5yr sentence. See: Martha Stewart.

It's pointless to argue this point, because the simple rule is, as you say, never to talk to the police, and have a lawyer and audio recorder if you do.

Well, they don't tend to prosecute that harshly. There are examples of people committing murder and telling the strangest most egregious lies you could imagine and getting nothing at all done to me. See Casey Anthony. Sure, the only thing that happened to her was like a little probation for her lies but those amounted to lies bigger than I could imagine a reasonable person telling the police with a straight face.

Also silence can be taken for assent if you don't explicitly invoke your right to silence. Just not answering isn't good enough sigh.

He sighed. That's the confession we need.

I can definately think of immigration cards/interviews as a case where that is true.

I've hounded my kids on "the expected answer" many times. Recently my son was told to write an essay on gun control. I shudder to think what might've happened had he not given the expected conclusion on that one.

If you have that little faith in the school why are you still sending your son there?

It's an issue with all public schools, except maybe in rural Iowa (see below). I don't like it but it is good training for life.

What is the expected opinion on that. I'm not from the US.

School teachers and school administrations tend to be skewed leftist / liberal relative to the average of the country as a whole.

Therefore, a student speaking in favor of 2nd Amendment rights or coming out sounding too "pro-gun" might find himself tagged for observation by the administration as an "extremist" or a potential threat.

For a school the expected opinion is that less guns is better.

That's highly dependent on the school. At my high school (rural Iowa) I can't see anyone taking issue with a pro-gun stance on a essay.