School Shouldn't Have Looked at 'Sexts' in Student's Confiscated Phone, Suit Says
The American Civil Liberties Union is suing a host of school and county officials on behalf of a former student who claims her constitutional rights were violated when her school principal confiscated her cell phone, found semi-nude photos of her on it and turned the phone over to authorities.
CNN, Legal Intelligencer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Get Schooled blog report that the federal lawsuit, filed Thursday, alleges that Wyoming County, Penn., Tunkhannock Area High School officials, prosecutors and a police detective invaded the former student’s privacy and violated her free-speech rights when they viewed the contents of the her confiscated phone last year.
“I was absolutely horrified and humiliated to learn that school officials, men in (the) DA’s office, and police had seen naked pictures of me,” the former student, now a 19-year-old woman, said in a prepared statement released by the ACLU. “Those pictures were extremely private and not meant for anyone else’s eyes.”
Valerie Burch, a lawyer for the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said the search went much farther than the law allows. “There was no reason to go looking for these pictures on her phone, and unless you have a very good reason, you can’t go through someone’s private things. We think it is a grave violation of her privacy.”
The suit alleges that a teacher confiscated the former student’s phone last year when she tried to make a call on campus, which was against school rules. The principal suspended the girl for three days and turned the phone over to local prosecutors who threatened to file felony child pornography charges against her if she didn’t agree to take a class on the dangers of sexting, the suit says. She took the class to avoid prosecution, according to the suit, which seeks damages, reimbursement for the cost of the class, and for any stored copies of the photos of her to be deleted.
School officials and prosecutors declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Three students at Tunkhannock presented with the same threat of prosecution last year took legal action against prosecutors. Last year, the ACLU filed suit to stop the district attorney from filing criminal charges against them. They quickly won an injunction barring the district attorney from pursuing charges against them, and the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the injunction in March.
