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.

Comments

Bullshit

[sexconker]

The law is blatantly unconstitutional.

Re:Bullshit

[msauve]

Where have you been? That's never stopped them before.

Re:Bullshit

[interkin3tic]

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.

My password

[damicatz]

My password is alt-f4. Make sure you press alt and then f4, if you press f4 and then alt, it will make your computer explode.

This is nonsense

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:"make me, bitch"

[grimmjeeper]

I hate Illinois Nazis.