The American Civil Liberties Union won a settlement on behalf of a Minnesota teenager, whose Facebook and email user names and passwords were taken by her former school following her online tirade about a teacher's aide. CNET said Riley Stratton, who was a sixth-grade student at that time of the incident, was asked to turn her email and social media account logins over when the school learned that she criticize a teacher on Facebook.
Minnewaska Area Schools had agreed to pay Stratton $70,000 in damages, aside from reforms on limiting the school's action to search email and social media accounts of its students. Moreover, the school will now search email and social media accounts created off-campus on the basis that there is reasonable suspicion that the search could uncover school rules violations.
Attorney Wallace Hilke, who assisted Stratton's case, said to Minneapolis Star-Tribune, "A lot of schools, like the folks at Minnewaska, think that just because it's easier to know what kids are saying off campus through social media somehow means the rules have changed, and you can punish them for what they say off campus. "They punished her for doing exactly what kids have done for 100 years - complaining to her friends about teachers and administrators," Hilke said. She wasn't spreading lies or inciting them to engage in bad behavior, she was just expressing her personal feelings."
Stratton, who was interviewed over the phone by the Minneapolis local paper, said she was asked outside school to turn over her account logins by Minnewaska school officials, and that a police officer was present when school officials issued their demand.
On the other hand, Minnewaska Superintendent Greg Schmidt said that the case threads a fine line wherein schools could play a role in preventing concerns like cyberbullying. He told Star-Tribune that schools also have the responsibility to make children aware that their actions could greatly affect someone.
