{"id":4934,"date":"2010-12-02T08:00:39","date_gmt":"2010-11-26T15:22:57","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-11-26T15:22:57","slug":"en-US","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=4934","title":{"rendered":"VA AG: School officials can search cellphone for evidence of \u201csexting\u201d or \u201ccyberbullying\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Virginia AG issues an opinion authorizing school officials to search student belongings and cellphones on reasonable suspicion of a violation of law or a school regulation for \u201csexting\u201d or \u201ccyberbullying.\u201d VA A.G. Op. 10-150 (November 24, 2010)<\/a>*:<\/p>\n

Accordingly, searches of a student\u2019s belongings–including an examination of the messages found on a cell phone or laptop–are justified if, when the search is made, the teacher or principal has \u201creasonable grounds for suspecting that the search will turn up evidence that the student has violated or is violating either the law or the rules of the school.\u201d In addition, the subsequent search must be \u201creasonably related to the objectives of the search and not excessively intrusive in light of the age and sex of the student and the nature of the infraction.\u201d<\/p>\n

12 Id.<\/a> at 342. See also In the Interest of Jane Doe<\/a>, 887 P.2d 645 (Haw. 1994) (applying the T.L.O.<\/a> framework and upholding search of a student\u2019s purse).
\n13 Id; see also Safford Unified Sch. Dist. #1 v. Redding<\/a>, 129 S. Ct. 2633, 2643 (2009) (finding a strip-search of student by school officials unreasonable and stating that T.L.O.<\/a>\u2019s mandate that school searches be reasonable in scope requires a specific suspicion that a student is hiding evidence of wrongdoing in his or her underwear \u201cbefore a search can reasonably make the quantum leap from outer clothes and backpacks to exposure of intimate parts\u201d).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

b2evALnk.b2WPAutP Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"pingsdone","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4934\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}