Minnesota School District Where Sixth Grader Had To Surrender Facebook Password to Administrators Settles for $70,000

The Minnewaska Area Schools in Minnesota
have 
settled a lawsuit brought by the family of Riley Stratton and
the local ACLU over an incident that happened two years ago. School
officials told the then-13-year-old sixth grader she had to give
them her Facebook password so that they could enter and search her
Facebook account. A police officer was present. What was Stratton
accused of doing?

Apparently, it started when she made a post (from home!) about
hating a hall monitor who she said was being mean. Stratton got an
in-school suspension for the infraction. Afterward, according to
the
Minneapolis Star-Tribune, she went to Facebook to find out
who snitched. An unidentified parent then accused her of having a
Facebook conversation of a sexual nature with her son. For that,
school officials hauled Stratton in, took her Facebook password,
and went through her account. It’s unclear what they found, but the
district did not accept any liability in agreeing to the $70,000
settlement, and it is still defending its decision. Via the
Tribune:

Minnewaska Superintendent Greg Schmidt…says the case
teeters on a fine line over when schools can play a parenting role
to combat things such as cyberbullying.

“Some people think schools go too far and I get that,” Schmidt
said. “But we want to make kids aware that their actions outside
school can be detrimental.”

He wasn’t in charge at the time…but he was involved in the
settlement and said: “The school’s intent wasn’t to be mean or
bully this student, but to really remedy someone getting off track
a little.”

Who is this guy? A credentialed educational “expert,” no doubt.
When I was in middle school, if a teacher or administrator were
hanging around the park or other places young people congregated to
listen in on their conversation, he’d be considered a creep. Even
if someone did complain to an administrator about something someone
said outside of school, it seems unthinkable that the
administrator would take it seriously.

Ensuring a smooth-running classroom and school is enough of a
task without policing children outside of school to boot. “Getting
off track a little” is something that could merit, for example, a
phone call home. Certainly it doesn’t justify a brutish invasion of
privacy.

Though the district did not admit any liability in the incident,
it did agree to new restrictions that limit searches of online
accounts to when there’s “reasonable suspicion they will uncover
violations of school rules.” Even this is unreasonable. School
rules aren’t laws, and they shouldn’t be something students can
break while operating online and off-campus. Would a school claim
the power to search a student’s bedroom for cheat sheets?

Mercifully, Riley, who doesn’t want to return to any school
after the humiliating experience, is now homeschooled.