12-year-old sues school district for punishing her over Facebook posts, demanding her passwords

12-year-old sues school district for punishing her over Facebook posts, demanding her passwords
Sixth-grader says her Constitutional rights were violated

By Meena Hart Duerson / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, March 11, 2012, 6:58 PM



A sixth-grader says she was forced to turn over her Facebook password.


A 12-year-old Minnesota student is suing her school district, claiming her Constitutional rights were violated when she was punished for comments she left on Facebook and forced to hand over her Internet passwords.

The sixth-grader, identified only as R.S. in court papers, is backed by the American Civil Liberties Union in the lawsuit against Minnewaska School District, filed Tuesday by her mother on her behalf.

R.S. claims she was repeatedly punished for statements she made on her Facebook account, including an instance in which she wrote that she hated one of the school's hall monitors who was "mean to her," according to the Minnesota Star Tribune.

The principal found a screen shot of the post - what the ACLU called “a typical young girl’s comment” - and put her in detention, ordering her to apologize to the hall monitor.

R.S. was later suspended for writing a Facebook post - which included an expletive - demanding to know who who turned her in, according to CNN.

In a third disciplinary interaction over her online behavior, the twelve-year-old says she was called in to meet with a deputy sheriff and two school staffers and forced to reveal her passwords after another student's mother complained R.S. used the computer to talk to her son about sex.

"She was intimidated, frightened, humiliated and sobbing while school administrators were scouring her private communications," attorney Wally Hilke said in a statement, according to CNN. "These adults traumatized this minor without any regard for her rights."

R.S. is suing on the grounds her First and Fourth Amendment rights were violated and the incidents caused her so much distress her schoolwork suffered because she was too embarrassed to return to class, according to the Star-Tribune.

The school district defended itself in a statement, saying, "The district did not violate R.S.'s civil rights, and disputes the one-sided version of events set forth in the complaint written by the ACLU...The district is confident that once all facts come to light, the district's conduct will be found to be reasonable and appropriate."

tmontyb wrote:I hope she wins and gets every penny she asks for. I have no problem with her Facebook comments being "flagged", but the school should have gone to her parents. They had no right punishing her or demanding her to give her password. Who do they think they are?

Alan Smithee wrote:Facebook is The Prince of Darkness

Cheaps wrote:...And Yup yup, "Facebook is the devil"

Am I the only one on this board who has a Facebook page? It is just a social network where I communicate with ppl I don't know outside of cyberspace. It is what you make of it.

Sorta like a forum board.

Cheaps wrote:The article said nothing about contacting the parents, which they should have done.

And Yup yup, "Facebook is the devil"

Alan Smithee wrote:Facebook is The Prince of Darkness