5 YO Girl wins 70K lawsuit

[Racket_Man]

again her school district after they forced her to give up her off-campus, at home Facebook password.

It started when Riley (a 13 YO at the time female) posted a comment (off campus, personal home computer and NOT on school time) on her Face Book page criticizing a hall monitor for being mean. Someone "ratted her out" and another parent reported her for having a conversation "of a sexual nature" (the conversation is not detailed or described in any article I found). The school admins ALONG with a county Sherriff's deputy forced her to give up her FaceBook alias and passwork. They then proceeded to navigate around her page.

http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2014/03/...8871395933450/

http://www.startribune.com/local/252263751.html

[Hyena Dandy]

I'm confused, where's the five year old in this?

[Aethian]

I think it's a typo and supposed to say 15.

[siead_lietrathua]

i don't really agree with the amount of money she won, seems excessive.
but i totally do agree with giving them the hammer for a massive privacy violation. what people do outside of school hours and off school property is NOT the school's business unless it's something they could actually get sued for. if the school had it reported to them that a student was doing naughty things OFF school time, they should only go as far as to pass the info along to that student's parents.

[s_stabeler]

it was a settlement, and the money it seems was "go away" money- the school didn't admit liability.

but seriously, the kid wasn't at school when she posted the comments, and they were not severe- she called a teacher mean.

there is an allegation that she was chatting in a sexual manner to another kid- that's the parent's business, not the school's, assuming it is done off school property. It CERTAINLY doesn't justify demanding a kid's facebook password, then trawling through the page in front of the kid. ESPECIALLY without anyone there to represent the kid's interests. At a MINIMUM, the kid's parents should have been there. Because quite frankly? it isn't the school's business what happens outside school. The school should have told the parents.

[patiokitty]

Why is it that schools are too busy poking their noses into things that are none of their business instead of actually teaching their students? Seriously, what the fuck?! If the time they spent sticking their nose into the goings-on of their students on social media outside of school time was better spent paying attention to students' needs during school time then maybe the education system wouldn't be going down the shitter.

[Greenday]

Good, it's a pretty open and shut case of invasion of privacy. It's illegal in NJ for companies to ask for the passwords of new hires or workers so I don't see why it shouldn't apply to schools either. Hopefully more states adopt NJ's laws on this.

[Herebecause]

i don't really agree with the amount of money she won, seems excessive.

This isn't mentioned in either of the articles posted, but in the article about this that I read (I believe it was a link from Yahoo's main page), she has to share part of the settlement with the ACLU which fought the case on her behalf.

I work in a school. It is a fine line that you have to watch - bullying does happen online, so schools need to be aware of what is being shared and posted online, even if it is done outside of school hours. That said, demanding passwords and then going through her page crossed the line, especially without specific parental agreement.

I also think a student posting that a staff member is mean is a total non-issue. If you work in a school and at least one student doesn't think you are mean, it means that you are letting them get away with murder and they just think you are an idiot.

[HYHYBT]

Rather than going through her account, they should have gotten the purported victim to show what they'd received. Without demanding account information, of course.

[protege]

but i totally do agree with giving them the hammer for a massive privacy violation. what people do outside of school hours and off school property is NOT the school's business unless it's something they could actually get sued for

It's another example of school officials (and I'm throwing teachers in here) attempting to exert control outside well outside of their jurisdiction. Much like some employers attempt to do the same. I don't know about you, but if I had that request...I'd have told the school to "blow me." It's none of their business what I do outside of school hours. But, I'm an asshole like that

Reminds me of the time my college tried to go after students who lived off-campus...for displaying fraternity and sorority letters in their windows. The students in question--myself included--gave the school the finger. Off campus, there wasn't a damn thing they could do, so the matter was quietly dropped.

But seriously, there are times when you have to be careful on social media. I work in the financial industry, and cannot even mention who I work for. Nor, can I "like" certain entities, like USAA, for example. Some of it is because of regulations, but also because if I *did* "like" USAA on Facebook, it would be seen as a "recommendation." To me, it's bullshit. But, I'd rather be safe than sorry--and I *don't* want to deal with my employer's compliance department. Much like the IRS, they can make my life difficult

[wolfie]

Demanding the social media passwords of students/employees is a BIG risk. First of all, you're ordering them to violate not only a basic principle of computer security, but (probably) also the TOS of the social media sites. You're also going to piss them off. I can easily imagine the following happening with a group of ticked off students or employees:

Group of peons knows approximately where school administrator/boss lives. They take a "sterile" laptop to near a coffee shop or someplace else with publicly-accessible wi-fi (possibly "pirating" an individual's unsecured network). Each of them, in turn, signs on to their social media account, posts something that will attract police attention (i.e. threats against federal-level officials), and signs out. Finally the "sterile" laptop is disposed of.

Naturally, the heat will come down on them. However, none of their computers have any trace of the threats originating there - and records will show that ALL of the accounts were accessed from the same IP address. All of them deny issuing the threats, and report that they had been forced to give up their passwords to the school administrator/boss. Multiple accounts, all accessed from the same IP address, and a single person had access to all the passwords? It won't take the authorities long to pick up Occam's Razor - and wind up slitting "I have a RIGHT to know what my peons are up to"'s throat with it.