Posted on 07/26/2011 11:00:32 AM PDT by TheDingoAteMyBaby
A civil-rights group is calling on Boca Raton High School to stop its practice of searching confiscated student cellphones and punishing students who don't provide access to their text messages or other content.
The National Youth Rights Association of Washington, D.C., on Monday outlined its concerns in a letter to Boca Raton High Principal Geoff McKee.
This complaint, which is the organization's first challenge on this issue, contends the school's practices "infringe upon the fundamental freedoms of its students and run counter to the holdings of the Supreme Court and the dictates of the Florida Legislature."
The letter acknowledges the high school's right to seize student phones that are viewed as "disruptive and distracting to learning."
But administrators should not be inspecting these devices to examine photos, text messages and other content, said Jeffrey Nadel, president of the 10,000-member association, which fights for the rights of young people nationwide.
According to the youth rights group, the school also has threatened students with in-school suspensions if they refuse to provide passcodes that are needed to access the phones in the same way passwords are needed to use computers and email accounts.
"We really saw this as a particularly egregious set of circumstances," said Nadel, who cited complaints from current and former students. "You don't teach young people to be good American citizens by infringing on their fundamental rights."
McKee said he had not yet seen the letter, but he promised to give it consideration. It's true that administrators have seized and examined cellphones, he said.
"I understand the grounds for the concerns expressed, and with input from our district legal department, I intend to review our policy regarding student cellphones," McKee said.
(Excerpt) Read more at sun-sentinel.com ...
Part of why I’ll never subject my kids to public schools.
At the school where I teach, we confiscate cell phones, but we are under strict orders not to look at what’s in/on them. Even the principal won’t look. Besides respecting the privacy of our students, we also don’t run the risk of being an adult in possession of child porn if there are any “inappropriate” pictures.
I’m dying to meet the bureaucrat who thought this was a good idea.
With the right forensic software, no passwords needed to get into a cell phone... #justsayin
This will show the expectation of privacy and will show that the phone is not property of the child and that the child has no say in the phone. The last part is the most important. Train your child to tell ANYONE and EVERYONE, that the phone is not theirs it is their parents, that they can not give access out to the phone, and that if there are any questions that they should contact the owners of the phone, their parents. If you are ever contacted by the school requesting the password, do not give it to them. Tell them it is your phone and you want it returned. If the police are involved, tell them to contact your attorney and you will release the password upon a court issued warrant.
But then you are digging into the phone without the student's "consent" or a search warrant and should have any evidence found thrown out by any judge who has even glanced at the Bill of Rights.
Maybe they should just try the National Lampoon method of consent that this sheriff employed to get permission to search and just threaten the kids' dogs if they don't "consent" to a search.
If the school believes the kid is using the phone to do something illegal, call the cops and let them handle it. Otherwise, they should concentrate on what they are paid to do. . .educate.
I haven’t taught in public school in 8 years now. When I stopped teaching (high school) we didn’t allow students to have cell phones on campus. Has that changed?
I teach in Jr. High. In the last eight years cell phones at my rural district have gone from rare to ubiquitous. The rule at out school is that phones are to stay in lockers during the school day. But since most kids “jam” their lockers so they don’t lock, they can easily get stolen from their lockers. So we kind do a “don’t ask, don’t tell” with the cell phones. If they have them in their purse or pocket, I pretend not to notice them. If they take them out, or if the phone rings, then they get taken awayto be returned at the end of the school day.
I am lucky. Most of my students are good kids and have no trouble following reasonable rules.
Seems to me that any electronic device in the possession of a student is a distraction from their primary purpose of being at school.
Wow, lookee there.........problem solved.
Wow, you must teach at a convent! ;) If we’d had a rule like that we would have had kids wanting to go to the bathroom constantly to check text messages, cheating on tests with their cell phones, etc. But I believe you, you may have a completely different sort of student body. Oh the tales I could tell...
But I suspect now it’s almost impossible to disallow them as the parents would throw a fit.
Not a convent, vut a rural public school. We have had some girls try to make/take calls in the bathrooms, but that is rare. It helps that we are in a bit of a dead zone, too. Once when we letting out early because of snow a girl asked me if she could call home. She had to stand on a desk next to a window to get enough bars! I’d probably notice if she was trying that to cheat on a test.
Our biggest problem with the phones is the kids using them to take pictures/videos. They then post them on facebook. We can’t show their pictures to anyone but their parents (making bus cameras pointless) but they can post our pictures wherever they want. But compared to what most teachers face, I really have it nice.
Not a convent, vut a rural public school. We have had some girls try to make/take calls in the bathrooms, but that is rare. It helps that we are in a bit of a dead zone, too. Once when we letting out early because of snow a girl asked me if she could call home. She had to stand on a desk next to a window to get enough bars! I’d probably notice if she was trying that to cheat on a test.
Our biggest problem with the phones is the kids using them to take pictures/videos. They then post them on facebook. We can’t show their pictures to anyone but their parents (making bus cameras pointless) but they can post our pictures wherever they want. But compared to what most teachers face, I really have it nice.
Yeah, that sounds like it helps. Of course, when I was teaching FB didn’t exist (or if it did no one knew about it. ;) Our school was rural, but I know I did catch a girl in the bathroom one day checking her messages. Of course, she lost her phone, her Mom had to come to the office and retrieve it.
I don’t know what their policy is now. I see parents, even on FR complain that if their kids don’t have cell phones with them they are in danger. I see a time in the future when there are not public schools because you cannot possible make everyone happy. At this point, Im all for it, let them keep their kids at home. I loved most of my students (and even got along great with virtually all of the parents), but it doesn’t take very many jerky ones with nutty parents to make the job not worth it.
When I went to Boca High in 1965 they confiscated my cell phone, I never did get it back.
Go Bobcats!
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