Posted on 03/13/2012 5:03:05 AM PDT by tobyhill
A 12-year-old Minnesota girl was reduced to tears while school officials and a police officer rummaged through her private Facebook postings after forcing her to surrender her password, an ACLU lawsuit alleges.
The claims are the latest in a string of tales showing that even password-protected, private online activities might not be safe from curious government agencies and schools. (See last week’s story)
The girl, whose identity is withheld in the lawsuit, came home "crying, depressed, angry, scared and embarrassed" after she was intimidated into divulging her login information by a school counselor and a deputy sheriff, who arrived in uniform, armed with a Taser, the lawsuit alleges.
(Excerpt) Read more at redtape.msnbc.msn.com ...
Of course some kids hide bad stuff. Step one is notifying the parents, not calling in the sheriff (we’re talking Facebook here, not dope peddling). So far nothing in this incident indicates urgent school/LEO involvement and rights violations.
Get with the program, they use smart phones to access facebook. So do I, when I'm away from my computer. I need a tablet, my fingers are just too phat for the phone.
Besides which, most folks set it up so their password is "remembered", although doing that on a public computer is.. dumb.
Educate yourself and have the password to your kids stuff. Do not use gevernment as a nanny, and do not support others who do. Responsibility for your kid is a parents job.
BTW: this would not happen on my watch anyway; I am a major supporter of homeschooling and my usual reply to threads such as this is two words "Home school"
They only abuse families and children like this because they have a captive audience.
Free people with independent education vouchers and alternatives and watch how quickly the Marxist public schools rediscover respect for the people they serve.
No young child of mine would be messing in social media! Parents are insane to turn their children loose in the gutter of the globe - the Internet. They are double insane to put their children in today’s public schools.
“Educate yourself and have the password to your kids stuff. Do not use gevernment as a nanny, and do not support others who do. Responsibility for your kid is a parents job.”
Easier solution...BAN FACEBOOK, at least until High School. I did fine without it, and so did my kids. It is not needed.
“Of course some kids hide bad stuff. Step one is notifying the parents, not calling in the sheriff (we’re talking Facebook here, not dope peddling). So far nothing in this incident indicates urgent school/LEO involvement and rights violations.”
To expect rational behavior from a government entity is why I included the second part of my original comment. If you turn over your kids to the state, the state can and will do as they please. It sure would be nice if the state acted in the interests of the parents and the children, but they have virtually no incentive to.
Huh??? Why should the SCHOOL be able to monitor it AT ALL!!!
If those “stupid parents” had a lick of sense, they should be the ones monitoring the activity...
I can think of all sorts of creative punishments for non-compliance in the home that make the monitoring so much easier...Most of the time kids find a way to circumvent this monitoring anyway, I know I would find a way...But the point is it IS NOT the job of the schools or some policing authority to monitor a child’s activities online...
There is no justification , nor Constitutional right to coerce a citizen into divulging any information like this without due process, much less a warrant...
Nothing personal, we just have a simple dissagreement here...
Public schools are the government, therefore, the government took from a private citizen something it was not authorized to receive.
“If a parent is STUPID ENOUGH to let their middle-schooler on Facebook, then yes, the school should have the right to monitor it”
Why are you on FREE REPUBLIC when you believe the government has the right to take control over someone else’s kids?? You obviously don’t even know what Facebook is when you say such stupid things as that. What a fascist idiot you jmust be.
More proof that Facebook is evil.
I cannot imagine Facebook being unleashed on a young teenager.
So do you also believe that guns kill people?
We’re one of those “bad families”....
Kids do not have email, cell phones, Facebook or Twitter. Internet is for homework and they are supervised when they’re online.
Home time is for decompression...homework, family time, doggie-playtime, team sports, chores & info sharing.
I keep hearing how overprotective and strict we are....but the kids are doing well in school (even our special ed daughter), they have alot of friends, who are always begging to come stay at our house and no one seems to complain about our tough, but fair, rules.
Pretty sure we’re doing something right.
Are you sure you are in the right place for your views.
“Nothing personal, we just have a simple dissagreement here...”
Not taken personal - if anything, I deserve some incoming. The reason that I post like I do is to try to impress upon people that they have virtually zero control over public schools. The schools are controlled by left-wing fascists (yes, even your ‘wonderful’ public schools) answer to government, who answers to special interests. The idea that a single parent, or any size group of parents, can directly change how the schools operate is simply insanity. The only hope in that direction, if there is any at all, is through the political process - basically electing enough conservatives to take over control. But that is a very long process and not at all likely to be successful.
...so when these things happen, parents should NOT be surprised - they should just understand that is the price of having a ‘free’ education for their kids.
We used to call this FELONY EXTORTION.
“Wow the great BobL has spoken, facebook is banned.”
I think you’d find most people on this site would support that...particularly those with kids.
“Why are you on FREE REPUBLIC when you believe the government has the right to take control over someone else’s kids?? “
I’m not sure that I said that. What I have been saying is that parents should not act surprised when government takes that action. If people have a problem with the action, it is up to them to prevent their kids from being exposed to it.
Just think about those cute diaries that kids are now forced to write about their personal lives, and are kept in the classroom, and are only available for the teachers to see. They’ve been their for decades. Going into Facebook is par for the course. Sorry if that bothers people.
I think you are out of your mind, conservatives do not want to use government to ban things, that lib talk. Conservatives believe in being responsible for themselves and their family. They prefer that have government out of their life. I have kids and I have no need to ban facebook.
By your reasoning I would be justified in saying, you need to rethink yourself.
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