School officials may not enjoy qualified immunity in all cases of searching the cell phones of students, based on a recent court ruling out of Texas.

 

Judge Nancy K. Johnson found in the case of Alexis Mendoza that an assistant principal, Stephanie Langner, may have gone outside her legal bounds when she inspected the student’s cell phone. The search turned up a nude photo of Mendoza, then an eighth-grader, who admitted she texted it to a boy who had done likewise with photos of himself.

 

Mendoza has filed a lawsuit against school officials who have asserted that their right to search cell phones does not violate the Fourth Amendment rights of students.

 

Johnson, however, ruled that Langner did not have the right to an “unfettered search” of Mendoza’s phone without reasonable suspicion. The judge also decided the case should go to trial.

 

School rules at Kimmel Intermediate School in Spring, Texas, forbid the use of cell phones. Suspecting that Mendoza had sent a text message, Langner seized Mendoza’s phone, turned it on, and confirmed that the student had used the phone during school hours. However, Langner then scrolled through Mendoza’s text messages and discovered the nude photo. Judge Johnson ruled that Langner was within her rights when she checked the latest message, but had violated Mendoza’s constitutional rights when she examined the rest of her text messages.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

Texas Teen Scores Legal First in 'Sexting' Privacy Case (by Matthew Heller, On Point News)

Jennifer Mendoza v. Klein Independent School District (U.S. District Court, Southern Texas, Houston Division) (pdf)