Preparing kids for the real world

In my Denver Post column today, I write about a growing practice among school administrators: the confiscating of student cell phones and reading of all internal phone messages – many of them sent outside of school hours – in an effort to unearth “incriminating” evidence. Often, the text messages are printed up and placed in the student’s permanent record. As a parent, I find such investigations appalling. And according to some, it’s also illegal.

I asked Mark Silverstein, legal director of ACLU of Colorado, why rummaging through text messages is any different than, say, rummaging through notebooks or intercepting notes between students?

“That is a completely different type of intrusion,” he contends. “The thing about searching cellphones is that it divulges all kinds of personal information. It’s one thing to search pockets or backpacks, if an administrator has a reasonable suspicion that a student is smoking. But if they fail to turn up anything, they don’t perform a strip search; it’s unreasonable. So is this.”

Silverstein points out that a cellphone could potentially hold text messages with sensitive personal information, not only about the student, but also about friends and family. He says there is no way to limit a search of text messages to include only areas relevant to the suspected violation of school policy.

Here is the letter from the ACLU on the matter.

Here is the response from the school district.