Do students have rights?

Not trolling for a political flare up, but I understand both sides.

Student gets caught texting in class, teacher confiscates the offending device. Principal scrolls though aps and finds things a 14 year old shouldn't have.

Student's Dad flips out.

If it were my kid, I would be upset, then I would put a knot on his head for texting in class etc.

What are your thoughts in this age of over protective, over digitized, overly sensitive overseers?

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Search-of-student-s-phone-outrages-dad-4225043.php

Kid was stupid for not locking his phone, and ever stupider to keep/recieve CP on it, I'm pretty sure most 14yr olds know what that is by now. Since when are you allowed to have cell phones in middle school?

wow.. both kids (the boy and girl-- who sent the photos) could be charged with child pornography... isn't that a little extreme when you consider both are still children?

The teacher should be allowed to confiscate the phone if it is prohibited by school rules and/or causing a distraction, but school officials have no business checking to see what's on it.

There are at least three people here who should have had the good sense to turn the phone off.

My wife teaches at a high school. The policy is that if your phone is out when it's not supposed to be, the teacher confiscates it. It goes to the main office where a parent or legal guardian has to pick it up. Suffice it to say, they don't see many phones during prohibited times.

It's not very smart to go looking through a phone as a teacher or administrator. You open yourself up to so much liability.

Datsun1500 wrote: I think if he had to scroll through the phone, open apps, etc. to see the stuff, he is way out of line. Why did he search through the phone? What gave him the right to do so? I'd be angry if anyone searched through my kids phones for no reason. Technically the phones belong to me. By doing so this guy has now taken a simple problem and gotten it blown way out of proportion. The principal could be charged with child porn as well, just or looking.

If the principle can be charged, then so could you, because the phone technically belongs to you...

Joey

My kid's school can and will confiscate phones being on and in use during class, there's a lot of good reasons why. I do not think they'd want to open themselves to the liability of going through them, there's just so many ways that could go wrong for them. Maybe the principal was looking for evidence of cheating on tests, that's one reason my kid's school limits cell phone use.

Kids under the age of 18 generally have a narrower set of rights than adults, such as they cannot legally sign contracts or buy real estate. No point in getting into the whys and wherefores, just accept that it is.

Privacy is a whole 'nother can of worms from real estate, etc and I am not sure just how far that goes outside of immediate family. I do know from recent experience that I have the right to go into my daughter's medical records until she is age 18, but there has been some controversy in other states about whether a 16 y/o girl can get birth control etc without parental knowledge and it seems they can. Don't know where that stands at the moment or whether that extends to cell phones etc.

I also learned first hand that I had no legal right to my wife's medical records even when we were married, they are hers and hers alone which goes back to the 'over 18' thing again.

But if it were me? Yeah, I'd be pissed off at the school administration. I would also definitely jerk a knot in my kid's head and probably confiscate the phone for an undetermined amount of time, maybe keep it till she can afford to pay her own cell bill (I can hear Hi Temp Guy getting ready to go off at me again).

Woody wrote: The teacher should be allowed to confiscate the phone if it is prohibited bay school rules and/or causing a distraction, but school officials have no business checking to see what's on it. There are at least three people here who should have had the good sense to turn the phone off.

This. Absolutely no problem with confiscating the phone during class. Authority had absolutely no right to do anything more than take the phone and give it back later. They should NEVER have pushed a button on it, let alone violated privacy to see what was on it.

Our policy (high school) is no personal electronic devices in Academic Classrooms during instruction. General rule of thumb is to treat them like adults and ask them to shut it off/put it away the first time. After that (2nd offense) take and hold until class is over. After that (3rd offense) it goes to the office for the parents to pick up at the end of the day. We do not go through the phones. Most kids will pull the SD card or battery before handing the phone over.

I have asked a class to take them out at once, shut them off, and then put them away. I also encourage students to use them for posting assignments to their calendars, taking pics of notes on the board or pages in textbook, etc.

I would never go through another PERSON'S phone student or adult.

Sounds like a BS search to me. Having a sister who is a teacher, she tells me the "who has rights" thing seems to swing WAY in the favor of the students. Teachers are wildly restricted in what they can do, from what she tells me.

Principal scrolls though aps

I have a problem with that ^ part. What kid doesn't password protect his phone, anyway??? Parents should've caught that!

That said, as the parent, the kid doesn't get the benefit of the doubt. He gets punished for having the phone in class.

Tough call. I don't have kids in school, so I can't say definitavely what I'd do. I WOULD be pissed. What exactly was the principal looking for?

EDIT: Okay. It wasn't "apps" that the student "shouldn't have" that the principal found/was looking for, it was pics of naked underage girls (at least that's what I gather from the article,) and the kid is being threatened with child pornography charges (ridiculous.)

At that point, I'd sure as E36 M3 lawyer up. This kid's life could be ruined over a dumb decision to keep pics of his ex-girlfriend on his phone. Imagine trying to start your adult working life as a registered sex offender for something so stupid.

I get the part about taking it if it was on and disturbed the class. Most teachers are very accepting that 95% of kids have phones and bring them to school. However they need to be OFF. If it was on, I don't have an issue with it being taken. HOWEVER things change when the principal goes into their accounts SEARCHING for what's there. Definitely a reason to make my children passcode their phones...and i HATE passcoded phones. That brings about my internet rules..."I" must know all of their passwords or they lose access to the computer. The same thing would go for the phone.

Is it possible the kid had the nudie pictures out to show his friends, and the principal saw the pictures, causing him to then be suspicious about the contents on the rest of the phone?

Seems reasonable to me...

Since no kid owns the phone... do the parents get the criminal charges?

Can I throat punch the teacher for touching MY phone that I loaned to my son?

Either way - the kid gets a whoopin' for being an idiot in class, for keeping nekkid pix of his girlfriend on MY phone and for not being smart enough to put a passcode one it.

Plenty of ass-kicking to go 'round... I might even have to poke myself in the eye for trusting an adolescent boy not to act like one.

Woody wrote: The teacher should be allowed to confiscate the phone if it is prohibited bay school rules and/or causing a distraction, but school officials have no business checking to see what's on it. There are at least three people here who should have had the good sense to turn the phone off.

x10000

principal should get fired for invasion of privacy, kid should get smacked in the head by dad for texting in class and sexting, teacher did nothing wrong.

Duke wrote:

Woody wrote: The teacher should be allowed to confiscate the phone if it is prohibited bay school rules and/or causing a distraction, but school officials have no business checking to see what's on it. There are at least three people here who should have had the good sense to turn the phone off.

This. Absolutely no problem with confiscating the phone during class. Authority had absolutely no right to do anything more than take the phone and give it back later. They should NEVER have pushed a button on it, let alone violated privacy to see what was on it.

+1

This was my policy when I was a teacher. Kids new that cell phones and iPods were not allowed in class. If I caught them, they would be confiscated, and I would hand them to the parents at the end of the day when the kid was picked up. As long as the kids were not making out at school (these were junior high students), it was not my job to police what was going on outside of school time.

Now... if I confiscated a phone, looked at what was on the screen (because I would check to see what was more important than my lesson at the time), and it was sexual in nature... that I would take issue and deal with.

The protocol for confiscating a phone should be along these lines. First, request that it be put away. If it appears a second time after the request to put it away, then ask the student to turn it off (or remove the sim card, battery, etc) and turn it in to the teacher. Third, the teacher takes steps to ensure the security of the phone immediately by turning it over to the administration. Fourth, the phone is returned to the student after administrative contact.

No one looks. No teacher keeps responsibility for its security from theft.

I've been teaching for a long time. To be honest, the "cell as a distraction in class" peaked a few years ago in our school. Students seem to be much more responsible with them now. I suspect we are creating new social norms that are working in our society.

Oh yeah -- I was an administrator for nine years. I would never search anything of a students without good reason, and without the parents' knowledge (not necessarily consent). "Good reason" in a school isn't the same level as "probable cause" in my opinion.

i once had my notebook confiscated for drawing in chemistry class. he looked through it at all the cars i drew, told me they were nice, and then yelled at me and threw it in the trash.

Idk about the school thing, I do know from a law enforcement angle that unlocked cell phones can be searched while locked ones require a warrant. Granted, that's generally after an arrest. There was a court ruling on this at some point though, but as I cannot find it, my statement goes unbacked. I don't think there is any right as an administrator in a school to do this, and I still feel that this should all be covered by the 5th amendment.

On the other hand, if some hormonal teen had nudie pictures of my daughter on a phone, I'd want a responsible adult putting a stop to it as soon as possible. But I am not sure at what cost to civil liberties . . .

Curmudgeon wrote: maybe keep it till she can afford to pay her own cell bill (I can hear Hi Temp Guy getting ready to go off at me again).

You pay your daughter's cell phone bill? Man, this weekend alone I've noticed I got royally screwed on the parent pool. I'd much rather see you pay for her education then a device she doesn't need though

Since no kid owns the phone... do the parents get the criminal charges? Can I throat punch the teacher for touching MY phone that I loaned to my son? Either way - the kid gets a whoopin' for being an idiot in class, for keeping nekkid pix of his girlfriend on MY phone and for not being smart enough to put a passcode one it. Plenty of ass-kicking to go 'round... I might even have to poke myself in the eye for trusting an adolescent boy not to act like one.

Bang on. Especially the not being smart enough part. I'm still confused about what parent in their right mind thinks it's necessary to buy their kid a cellphone though.