AIBU to ask if school can go through my son's phone?

[ejk10]

This hasn't happened to my son yet -but he thinks it might, and happened to some of his friends today.

Apparently a child has made a statement which the school is investigating (none of the boys have been told what the complaint is) and a teacher demanded to look through this boy's phone and deleted some information. My son has not been questioned but is friends with those who have been and is wondering if the school would ask to look at his phone.

I'm not sure of the legalities of this. Part of me thinks if he has nothing wrong why worry if they look - another part of me thinks it is a huge invasion of privacy. My son assures me he has done nothing wrong - regardless of whether he has or not I'm questioning if they have the right to look through private data.

Can anyone shed any light?

It occurs to me, however, that a teacher could delete something that incriminated them. Surely they shouldn't be allowed to do that without witnesses?

Lol at police instantly cracking a PIN number.

Also in agreement with @sethis, and why would you be encouraging your child to leave his phone at home? Great example to your DS about rules not applying to him. And you a Governor too....
Next time your school’s behaviour policy comes up for review, put your case to the Governing Body to change the policy because you don’t agree with its current content, or is it that it simply doesn’t apply to your child? I speak as a weary admin worker in a school who has to listen to whinging parents who want their child to attend a school with strict rules as long as those rules don’t apply to their precious darling.

Amused at the idea people can delete stuff and that it's gone.

It's never gone. Every keystroke can be retrieved.

There is a very simple question from parent to child.Will you let me look through the pictures, videos and messages on your phone? If they say yes then you have an answer. If they say no then you have a different answer which is probably much more worrying and asking the question may well then need to be a demand to look.

parents who want their child to attend a school with strict rules as long as those rules don’t apply to their precious darling.

Oh yes. Many many of these.

As a parent you absolutely should be checking your bloody child's phone not dithering about his human rights. If an allegation is made to school that is deemed serious enough then the procedure is to report directly to police. They will have no issues with seizing the phone and taking whatever steps they need to to access the content - yes, they'll ask for passcodes/passwords for apps but they really, really don't need them. Having them speeds the process up for getting the phone returned...

In school it's not unusual to ask a student to show a member of staff messages or similar that would be deemed as e-safety issues (obviously not explicit images - they are an immediate 101 call and we would never ask to see them) and to ask them to delete them immediately in front of us. I wouldn't do it for them but I would expect them to comply. I would also suggest students block/delete people from accounts who are causing them grief but again, I obviously can't do this for them. Parents would be contacted - bearing in mind most of these problems happen outside school yet we are expected to unpick and deal with them because some parents seem to think they shouldn't be checking their children's 'private' phones...

I believe everyone has a right to privacy

Assuming your child is a young teenager, I hope your belief doesn’t stop you monitoring his online activities and regularly checking his phone with no prior warning. If it does, then you are putting your son at enormous risk.

Tell your child not to allow anyone to access his phone. That includes teachers.

If teachers try to force the issue by coercion it is they who will be in trouble.

You must give him the confidence to say no if this happens.

the police struggle to unlock terrorists phones etc without court order to Apple or manufacturers. I'd imagine non compliance would result in suspension/expulsion so if hes got nothing to hide why worry

Cauliflowersqueeze swear to God, the hours I waste ..........

The police cannot break a pin code on a phone, and WhatsApp in particular is fully encrypted. They know this and would not try to pursue it. They cannot demand that it is unlocked for them either, and if they attempt to to then a solicitor should be consulted.

Tell your child not to allow anyone to access his phone. That includes teachers

If teachers try to force the issue by coercion it is they who will be in trouble

You must give him the confidence to say no if this happens

That is really stupid advice.

I too am slightly concerned about the absolute power we seem to be giving schools. Yes I fully understand safeguarding but I don't agree that schools and teachers are always the best people to be handling sensitive and possibly criminal evidence.

My own experience involved a 16 year old girl being horrifically beaten by three other 16 year old girls on school grounds at home time. It had been filmed and the phone was confiscated. The mother of the beaten child asked for the video/phone to be given to police and they were told that the video had been deleted and the phone returned to the pupil, who unsurprisingly had "lost" it within hours. Now the school can not be neutral - they have an interest in upholding reputation.

In situations of serious assault, bullying, sexual harassment, revenge porn or any other illegal activity, schools should hand phones straight over to the police.

But according to the guidance that everyone has linked to, he doesn't have the right to privacy if he takes a phone to school, hey have the right to search it and they don't need your permission or for you to be present, so I am not sure why you are saying you would only agree to it if you could be there...they don't need your agreement??

A teacher could be deleting incriminating evidence against them or against another teacher. Also by forcing someone through coercion to unlock their phone, that person, not having received legal advice could be incriminating themselves, which nobody is obliged to do.

Schools cannot demand that phones be unlocked. The police can try but they would be on very shaky ground legally.

And people wonder why schools don't like having mobile phones on site.

Blimey. I didn't know this! Who knew? Once again I learn something interesting from MN!

There is the thought that this 'right to privacy' must also apply to staff.

So, if there's an allegation of something unpleasant or illegal regarding your child being held on a member of staff's phone, that logic gives them the right to refuse to allow it to be investigated.

Can you imagine the fuss that would cause?

'AIBU? My son says his friend saw a teacher take an upskirt photo of a girl in their class but the teacher won't let anybody check their phone, saying they've got a right to privacy. I think they should take it and look anyway'

“That is really stupid advice.”

No it isn’t. People can be incriminated by content they have received and should never allow for themselves to provide evidence which incriminates themselves without receiving legal advice. Especially a young person such as a child.

If he’s bothered about teachers insisting on seeing what is on his phone then he needs to leave it at home. Rather suggestive of inappropriate material being held.

Hahahaha WhatsApp isn't fully encrypted.

If necessary if can be broken into.

And yes, schools do refer on PREVENT cases of suspected radicalisation....

“Great example to your DS about rules not applying to him.“

Rules which aren’t lawful don’t apply to him though. They don’t apply to anybody. They can and should be ignored.

If he's bothered about teachers looking, and you are trying to make sure they can't that says pure and simple to me that he's got something to hide and you know it.

Streetwise

Out of interest, have you ever been tasked with sifting through eleventy hundred inane memes to find the moment on Snapogram where Sharon’s boyfriend Paul said the thing that Abbie totally thought was flirtatious that meant that Donna, Jessica AND fucking Paige couldn’t go to any of their lessons that morning?

No?

Thought not.