A school in Minnesota will pay one of its former students $ 70,000 to settle a lawsuit initiated over the school's alleged access of the student's Facebook profile without authorization.
According to CBS Minnesota, Riley Stratton, a sixth grader at the Minnewaska School in 2011, vented her frustration against her teacher's aide on Facebook. When the school management learned this, they allegedly forced Stratton to hand over her password.
According to CNET, Stratton's lawyer, Wally Hike, stated his client lost faith in adults after the incident and was not able to attend school owing to the embarrassment.
According to NY Post, the school administrators sought her password after a parent complained to the school authorities that Stratton was talking about sex to another middle school student on the Internet.
Minnewaska Superintendent Greg Schmidt told the NY Post that the school obtained permission from Stratton's parents to look at her cell phone, but there was no written consent signed. Yet the teenager's mother, Sandra Stratton, said she was not contacted by the school administration and stated that schools should allow parents to punish children for any misdemeanours outside the school premises.
According to the NY Post, Hike said, "They punished her for doing exactly what kids have done for 100 years - complaining to her friends about teachers and administrators. She wasn't spreading lies or inciting them to engage in bad behavior; she was just expressing her personal feelings."
In a statement, Stratton said she was happy her case was over. "I am so happy that my case is finally over, and that my school changed its rules so what happened to me doesn't happen to other students. It was so embarrassing and hard on me to go through, but I hope that schools all over see what happened and don't punish other students the way I was punished," CBS quoted her statement.
