Legal Question in Education Law in Massachusetts
school reading student text messages on cell phone
Is it legal for schools in MA to read student's text messages on their private cell phones?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: school reading student text messages on cell phone
Like many things in the law, this is not a well-settled question. The review of cell phone text messages provides us with an updated technological twist on an old issue - the issue is what protections are afforded public school students under the Constitution.
Clearly this is a privacy/1st/4th Amendment issue.
If the question is: does a school have the right to randomly look at text messages barring some legitamte suspicion of a threat or disruption to the school, then I beleive the answer is no.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Ohio recently challenged this very issue. You may want to contact the MA ACLU if you have further concerns about this.
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