In a case involving a homecoming queen election at an Escambia County high school, an appeals court Wednesday rejected arguments by a former elementary school assistant principal who was accused of improperly accessing student records.
A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal turned down arguments by Laura Carroll that statements she made to a school district investigator should have been suppressed.
Carroll, a former assistant principal at Bellview Elementary School, pleaded no contest to a charge of using a two-way communications device to facilitate a felony, but she reserved the right to appeal on the suppression issue, Wednesday’s ruling said.
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The case stemmed, at least in part, from a Tate High School contest for homecoming queen.
“When the results of Tate High School’s 2020 homecoming queen election came in, Laura Carroll’s daughter appeared to have won convincingly,” the ruling, written by Judge Lori Rowe and joined by Judges Brad Thomas and Clay Roberts, said. “But not everyone was convinced. The teacher responsible for administering the election reported to school officials that many votes in the election had been flagged by the election application software — and that every flagged vote had been cast for Carroll’s daughter.”
Students could cast votes through an app that required providing student identification numbers and dates of birth. Carroll had access to a district portal that included such student information.
Investigators found that someone using Carroll’s credentials had accessed Tate High School student information through the portal. Investigators also found that 117 homecoming-queen votes originated from an internet protocol address that was traced to Carroll’s cell phone number, Wednesday’s ruling said.
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The appeals court also cited statements about Carroll’s daughter using her mother’s credentials to access the portal and Carroll viewing records of Tate High School students.
In the appeal, Carroll argued that a circuit judge should have suppressed statements she made to an investigator “because she was coerced into answering his questions in violation of her privilege against self-incrimination. She claims that she believed her job would be adversely affected if she did not answer” questions, Wednesday’s ruling said.
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