A Teacher Asking Students To Destroy Notes?

zwei2stein writes "I found this question with far-reaching implications in the off-topic section of a forum I frequent: 'My economics teacher is forcing us to give up all of our work for the semester. Every page of notes and paper must be turned over to her to be destroyed to prevent future students from copying it. My binder was in my backpack, and she went into my backpack to take it. Is that legal?' Besides the issue with private property invasion, which was the trigger of that post, there is much more important question: Can a teacher ask a student not to retain knowledge? How does IP law relate to teaching and sharing knowledge? Whose property are those notes?"

Comments

Re:I would.

[BlueCollarCamel]

No you wouldn't, now sit down and shut up.

Re:The school owns it.

[warGod3]

Yes, it is a contractual obligation that you will abide by a school's rules and regulations while in attendance. However, a teacher/professor/etc. still has no right to request or order you to surrender your notes. Your notes are your own, you took them. How do you know that by surrendering those notes that professor isn't going to use them for a book? Maybe she's looking for a student's view on economics and is hoping to find it in someone's notes? A teacher wanting to go into your personal effects without either school security present or the police is asking for trouble. Tell her you are going through her purse looking for stuff.