American Principals searching students' mobiles for incriminating texts

Link: Searching students’ text messages stirs concerns

Principals in at least three suburban Denver schools have searched students’ cell phone text messages when they suspected the students of cheating, drug abuse or other school violations.

Officials in the Douglas and Jefferson school districts say policies that allow them to search lockers, backpacks and cars parked on school grounds also authorize searches of cell phones when there is a “reasonable suspicion” of wrongdoing.

“We have found instances of texts that revealed both drug transactions … as well as pornographic material stored in pictures,” said John Stanek, an attorney for Douglas County schools. That includes phones with “downloaded material as well as pictures of other unsuspecting students,” he said.

Oh I don’t think I agree with this at all. If you’re going to search their mobile phones, why don’t you perform a search of every piece of paper in their bag as well as every notebook and folder?

It’s also not a very reliable medium. I mean, if this becomes a regular thing, the kids will simply make sure they erase their inboxes frequently. What’s more, they’ll send texts to each other in code. Or, better still, just use non-stored IM communications for real-time conversations that can’t be easily tracked.

Further, as we all know, the origiator can be dynamically set using almost any text gateway — so incoming messages can’t necessarily be ‘used as evidence’ in this context.

Ridiculous, I think.