School demands search of text messaging, outside of school • Hacker News Board

Re: School demands search of text messaging, outside of school

#111

Post by blooalien » Sun, Aug 14, 2022, 10:46 PM UTC

philipwhiuk wrote: post #67

Someone1234 wrote: post #16

Let me provide a common hypothetical: - A student is being bullied. This bullying is happening using social media and or text messages. These messages are being sent at various times pseudo-anonymously but there's strong reason to know who it is. Who, exactly, is the authority who we expect to look into this? Is it the police? Using what law/powers? Are social workers empowered? We're clearly not ok with the school d…

You make the parents legally responsible for the actions of the child and then you send the police after the parents.

That's exactly how things worked when I was a child. And parents did not hesitate to right properly "whup that brat's a**" ("that brat" being whichever child had caused a problem bad enough to involve police somehow) when police came knockin' at the door with a warning to the parents to the effect of "Do your job as a parent, or legal action may become necessary."

Re: School demands search of text messaging, outside of school

#112

Post by mlyle » Sun, Aug 14, 2022, 10:53 PM UTC

vorpalhex wrote: post #107

mlyle wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As the document shows, many instances of schools searching students' mobile devices without a warrant have been shown to be constitutional in appellate courts.

So that isn't what the document says. Out of 5 cases, only two were constitutional. Both of those were allowed to confirm that a disallowed activity had happened during school. Specifically in Mendoza vs Klein ISD (from the paper) we see that the continued search of the phone after confirmation of texting in class was ruled unconstitutional.

Yes, this pretty clearly establishes there's bounds: the search has to be tailored in scope to address a reasonable suspicion of a violation of school policy.

Can a school have a policy about cyberbullying outside of school, and pursue a search in that case? This is untested.

As I said:

"The exact limits of a public school's authority to search mobile devices, to handle events that have partially occurred outside school, has not been established."

Re: School demands search of text messaging, outside of school

#113

Post by tomrod » Mon, Aug 15, 2022, 2:56 PM UTC

rdtwo wrote: post #99

tomrod wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone is accountable to someone. Escalate where needed.

That may be true but you need to somehow be higher on the social ladder than the assailant. Good luck if you are getting harassed by police to get them to stop you need to have a direct line to the mayor or at least city council.

Social "Ladder" is the wrong metaphor. We live in a mesh without a specifically defined ordering of nodes.

For example, going to the press is an option.

Re: School demands search of text messaging, outside of school

#114

Post by rdtwo » Mon, Aug 15, 2022, 3:08 PM UTC

tomrod wrote: post #113

rdtwo wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That may be true but you need to somehow be higher on the social ladder than the assailant. Good luck if you are getting harassed by police to get them to stop you need to have a direct line to the mayor or at least city council.

Social "Ladder" is the wrong metaphor. We live in a mesh without a specifically defined ordering of nodes. For example, going to the press is an option.

If you go to the press that might make the situation worse. The press no longer provide a significant check on other power structures in government