Back before students were so tech-savvy, teachers would intercept notes passed between kids and toss them in the trash. Or worse, they would read the often-embarrassing passages aloud to the class.
But in the 21st century, old-fashioned note passing has been replaced by text messaging on cellphones, and teachers and principals are worried that the correspondence has become much more serious than the old “check yes or no” boxes on written notes.
The reading of those text messages, however, has raised privacy concerns in some Colorado school districts.
Principals in at least three suburban schools told The Denver Post they have searched students’ cellphone text messages when they suspected the students of cheating, drug abuse or other violations. Officials also have found pornographic pictures as well as “pictures of other unsuspecting students” taken by cellphone cameras, according to John Stanek, an attorney for Douglas County schools.
Officials in the Douglas and Jefferson school districts say the very same policies that allow them to search lockers, backpacks and cars parked on school grounds also allow them to search cellphones – as long as there is “reasonable suspicion” that a student has somehow violated school policy or the law.
The American Civil Liberties Union, as expected, has another view. Mark Silverstein, legal director of the ACLU of Colorado, called the practice a “dramatic and unprecedented invasion of students’ privacy. … It goes far beyond anything the [U.S.] Supreme Court has authorized.”
School districts across the country apparently are grappling with where to drawn the line on cellphone searches.
Here’s an idea: Turn off the cellphones and keep them stowed in your lockers.
If cellphones have become such a huge distraction that districts are actually paying lawyers to sort out their rights of search and seizure, schools ought to just ban cellphones.
Last time we checked, there was no constitutional right to carry a cellphone at school, or to text message a friend during class or in the hallways.
Our advice to students is similar to what we’d like to tell motorists, with a twist: Turn off the cellphone and learn.
