Thursday, November 10, 2011

ACLU says schools have inconsistent cellphone policies - latimes.com

ACLU says schools have inconsistent cellphone policies - latimes.com:

ACLU says schools have inconsistent cellphone policies

A report by the American Civil Liberties Union released Thursday found that school districts across California have inconsistent policies regarding a school's ability to search the contents of a student's cellphone, often encroaching on a student's right to privacy.

The ACLU of California said searching phones has become a bigger, and more common, issue as cellphones have become pervasive among students. The report's authors -- Brendan Hamme and Hector O. Villagra of the ACLU of Southern California -- contend that searching phones could be a serious invasion of privacy, considering the amount of personal data a device could contain, including text messages with intimate conversations, photos and videos and financial information.

Researchers found that districts' policies tended to fall into two categories. Most of the 164 districts surveyed