Schools, to be sure, are charged with responsibility for protecting their students, and trying to assure that the students abide by rules of proper conduct. And I certainly have no problem with them taking that responsibility seriously.
But at some point, there is a line drawn where the school should not tread, because it invades the student's privacy.
And that is precisely what happened with a 6th grade Minnesota student, who was given detention for negative comments she made on Facebook about a hall monitor. Importantly, she made those comments from the privacy of her own computer at home - NOT at school.
The school then went further.
Administrators forced her to provide them with her password for her social media accounts to ascertain if she was having any other conversations that they disapproved of.
At that point, the ACLU stepped in.
And now, the school settled the lawsuit she brought against them for invasion of her privacy and violation of her constitutional right to free speech - for a whopping $70,000.
