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Illinois Students Suspected of Cyberbullying Must Provide Social Media Passwords
derekmead writes: School districts in Illinois are telling parents that a new law may require school officials to demand the social media passwords of students if they are suspected in cyberbullying cases or are otherwise suspected of breaking school rules. The law (PDF), which went into effect on January 1, defines cyberbullying and makes harassment on Facebook, Twitter, or via other digital means a violation of the state's school code, even if the bullying happens outside of school hours. A letter sent out to parents in the Triad Community Unit School District #2, a district located just over the Missouri-Illinois line near St. Louis, that was obtained by Motherboard says that school officials can demand students give them their passwords.
Seriously though, can somebody remind me what the difference is between "cyberbullying" and speech protected by the first amendment to the US Constitution?
Where have you been? That's never stopped them before.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Is someone is a victim of cyber-bullying, can't you check the account of the victim too?
But then what about aliases and alternative accounts?
Social media: more trouble than it's worth.
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This isn't going to do anything to help cyberbullying - which mostly goes unchecked because institutions and parents turn a blind eye to it. Instead, it's a base power grab to allow educators to harass students for behavior they disagree with, and to invade student's private lives. If state government doesn't have the right to pry into the personal accounts of adults, it certainly doesn't have the right to pry into personal accounts of children - a privilege which does remain the responsibility of the parent at hand.
Maybe the best way to counteract bullying isn't with macho statist nonsense, but by examining a system which encourages people to use cruelty to make themselves feel better? I'll be amazed either way if this helps even one case of actual cyberbullying, instead of us just hearing in a year or two about how some child predator school admin demanded access to a tween girl's accounts.
If the school suspects some form of bullying, then shouldn't the victim be able to log on themselves and simply demonstrate the instances of cyber-bullying? No one needs to disclose passwords to anyone to prove cyber-bullying.
I'm pretty sure this violates the TOS on facebook or any other social media, since they specifically say not to disclose your password to anyone. They have no legal ground to stand on.
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A prime example is how many school boards illegally try to harass black students in the 60s and homosexual students today.
Schools jobs are education, not law enforcement.
They can in no way be trusted with passwords.
The real problem is that people expect the schools to deal with the bullying. NO. Bullying is a criminal matter and the cops need to get involved. If the child in question is a severe bully, arrest and charge him.
If not, have social workers take over - and let the social worker assigned to the case have access to the password, not some school board.
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Account? What Facebook account?
I don't have one.
Oh that account - well someone's just using my name.
These are the people making policy that the people teaching our children are expected to enforce?
FTFY. Very few teachers are ever involved or considered in making policy. Being originally from that state, there were always things that every single teacher I met (and I met a number, my mother was a teacher, my brother is a teacher (as was his ex-wife), and, as such, many of their friends were too) absolutely hated.
In some school districts, it's a fineable (and, actually, terminate-able) offense for the teacher to grade papers in red ink (because the color red means it was bad)... Other districts are known to not allow teachers to give out homework until High School. It's ridiculous for sure, but these rules certainly were not put in place by the teachers and to lump them in with the policy makers is ridiculous.
"Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve
And unbelievably ignorant in terms of technology and the sanctity of passwords and system access. These are the people teaching our children and making policy? That's very frightening.
Why are you pissed at the "people teaching?" Did you read the words "new law" in the post up there? You think school admins and teachers want to deal with this BS? You're naïve. This is another example of a state legislature crafting a misguided law because some concerned parents tweaked a state rep's ear. The problem is in the statehouse, not in the principal's office.
I suspect it's also unconstitutional. Schools have too much power these days. As a parent, I have felt the force of that power. They can very much at times be vindictive.
I thought public schools thought the three "C"s, conform, consume, and cower.
It is appropriate for a school to demand passwords. Learn to obey early and without question, as one can never be blamed for just following orders.
It says nothing about giving passwords. It says schools have to create and follow a policy, and that they have to investigate claims of bullying. Nowhere in that law does it say that students have to actually cooperate with the investigation. Investigating could be as simple as questioning the involved students. Perhaps reviewing their public profile. Perhaps having the alleged victim show the evidence using the victim's login WITHOUT giving that to anyone.
School districts who claim this law gives them the right to demand account credentials are...well, I'll be polite. They're wrong.
Another good reason for home schooling!
All fine and good, but if you read the actual text of the law, it doesn't empower schools to require students to hand over passwords to someone working at school. This is just another overreach by petty adults to justify their instinct to act like bullies instead of using their heads.
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> PSS: I doubt it really matters if the ground you're standing on has been "finally tested" when at that point you'll be an ex-student standing in the street, expelled.
It depends. It depends on what social class you belong to and how much access you have to legal representation.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
I'm not familiar with the track record of students kicked out of high schools for idiotic reasons such as this, but I've heard of some students who sued their school districts, seems like the case I'm remembering they got into decent schools.
"I stood up to my school district for invading my privacy, they expelled me, I got the ACLU to sue them and got reinstated/a hefty settlement that I'm using for college tuition" seems like a college essay that would really stand out from "I volunteered once at a soup kitchen."
Keep in mind that rules like these are rules made by cowards: they're not doing this because they believe the best way of educating their students is to invade their privacy. This is purely the work of administrators who are afraid of lawyers hiding behind every corner. That works both ways: they'll pick on the wrong student before too long, that student will call their bluff, the school will make even dumber threats, the student will organize a legal response, and the school will back down in a huff saying it's unfortunate that they couldn't protect students or something like that.
Only the good ones.
There's a reason there's a two-tier university system in the UK. I suspect the US is pretty similar.
It's more of a continuum in the US. A student's history suing his school is only going to help him if he was suing them when they were doing something very wrong, the admissions committee at the school he applied to believes that, and the school he's applying to is rich enough that they can risk a small lawsuit or two.
So if you sue your high school because they wouldn't let you play on a men's sports team because you were gay, for example, Harvard and Yale and a few dozen of the top schools would definitely count that as a major plus, whereas many small private schools struggling to make ends might well count it as a risk they were unwilling to take.