Privacy Bill Aims To Protect CT Students' Mobile Devices

From CT State Reps: State Rep. Pam Staneski (Milford & Orange) hailed passage of her bill, which moves to safeguard the right to privacy for students and their personal mobile electronics devices.

The bill balances the privacy interests of students with educators need to provide a safe learning environment. HB 7154, An Act Concerning Students' Right to Privacy in Their Personal Mobile Electronics Devices outlines procedures for seizure and search of a student's cell phone.

Under the bill, when a school employee takes custody of a student's personal device because of reasonable suspicion that the student violated education policy or poses a risk of imminent personal injury, the employee must immediately turn the device over to a school administrator. The school administrator must follow certain steps to conduct a search if he or she finds one is warranted, and reports documenting the seizure and the search must be filed within an outlined timeframe.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, who testified in favor of the bill, students do not forfeit their right to privacy when they walk onto school property. This bill would protect students’ Fourth Amendment rights and without the protections in this legislation, students could be subjected to a violation of their rights, such as expulsion, strictly due to random acts of intrusion, instead of actions based on probable cause.

“The large and fast growing digital world adds challenges to an educator’s ability to maintain order in the school environment – especially when the majority of students carry cell phones. The bill does not hamper a school administrator’s control over the learning environment,” said Rep. Staneski. Currently our schools have many different privacy policies regarding cell phone use, search and seizure. This bill looks to standardize these policies.

While this bill concerns students’ rights to privacy, Rep. Staneski reiterated “it also adds a layer of protection for teachers and school staff, especially if there is a reasonable suspicion that the student was involved in illegal activity. Administrators have a better understanding of the need to preserve the contents on a phone in the event they had reason to believe that a student was involved in illegal activity. Limiting the action of the search to an Administrator protects staff from having to navigate any legal concerns pertaining to the search, and given that many students lack discretion as to what they store in their phones, limiting the search of a student’s cell phone to the discretion of an administer will also protect the possible exposure of private information unconnected to the initial reason for the search.”

Image Courtesy of CT State Reps