Do you want to know if teachers can read text messages? For better or worse, the explosion of smartphone use and ownership has created a number of challenges for parents and educators when it comes to how to manage children’s screen time responsibly.

Many parents no doubt struggle to pry phones out of their kids’ hands as so-called screen addiction grows as a disturbing phenomenon among people young and old.

For teachers though, the challenge of keeping students’ attention during classes is made that much harder when they’re competing with mobile apps and games and text messages, and many other smartphone-based distractions that can derail the learning process. 

With that in mind, it’s no surprise that smartphones in schools have been the source of near-constant controversy, as school boards and teachers try to deal with the problem of students tuning out of classes in favour of watching TikTok videos and scrolling through Instagram feeds.

Phone Policies in Schools

Smartphone policies in schools, in turn, continue to raise a host of interesting legal issues, especially when it comes to teachers seizing students’ phones and even reading their text messages. Some educational institutions have also taken to monitoring phone and internet use among students using specialized software. 

Students and parents are then left to wonder about the legality of schools’ smartphone policies, likely leaving them with many unanswered questions. 

Is it illegal for teachers to read your text messages? Can a school monitor your phone? What should students or parents do if they think a teacher or school administrator has crossed the line by taking a phone away? 

Can Teachers Legally Read Students’ Text Messages?

Before cell phones became a must-have tool to stay connected and a ubiquitous part of everyday life, schools didn’t have to deal with students being glued to screens at all hours of the day.

But education professionals and administrators are now faced with the difficult task of crafting reasonable and legal policies around cellphone use in classrooms due to their disruptive effects on the learning process.

Whether they divert a student’s attention away from a lesson plan or disrupt an entire class with an embarrassing ringtone, cell phones in the hands of students are no doubt a problematic distraction at best or an education-derailing force at worst. 

Court rulings and lawsuits over school cell phone seizures

As a result, clashes between students and teachers over the use of cell phones have landed them in court and sparked legal battles that have dragged on for years. For instance, a student in Kentucky had to take his high school and its administrators to court after being expelled in part for texting in class back in 2009.

His teacher seized his phone and handed it over to another school employee who read through a few of his text messages.

While a lower court tossed the student’s lawsuit, a federal appeals court reversed that decision in 2013 over the student’s claim that he was denied due process as well as having his Fourth Amendment rights against unlawful search and seizure violated. 

The plaintiff in the case, identified only by the initials G.C., had violated the school’s policy on cell phones by texting in class, according to the ruling.

Can school administrators take my phone?

After taking the phone, his teacher handed it over to another school official who claims she read through the boy’s text messages out of concern that he was suicidal and in danger of harming himself.

Having a history of behavioural and disciplinary problems, the boy did admit that school employees were “justified” in searching his phone out of concern for his wellbeing but claimed there wasn’t a “reasonable suspicion” allowing them to do so lawfully.

The defendants countered that the search of his text messages was indeed out of “reasonable suspicion” of the boy committing self-harm and potential “evidence of illegal activity.” 

Read your text messages

In its ruling, the appeals court pointed out that the United States Supreme Court had set out a “relaxed” legal standard related to searches in schools based on “reasonableness.”

Other courts have clarified the standard by finding that searches are justified when it can be reasonably suspected that a search will turn up evidence of a student’s illegal activity or violation of school rules, or if they pose an “imminent danger of injury on school premises.” 

The appeals court found that the boy simply became upset after his teacher took his phone after catching him texting in class. The school-based defendants, the court found, had failed to show that searching the phone would turn up anything about him committing crimes, violating school rules, or harming himself.

The search, therefore, wasn’t based on “reasonable suspicion to justify the search at its inception.” The court of appeals then punted the case back to a lower court to decide on damages and other issues. 

Is it Acceptable for a Teacher to Check Your Texts?

Clearly, schools all over the world have to deal with students using phones constantly, but teachers and administrators aren’t given the blanket right to take them away and violate a student’s privacy by searching the devices without proper legal justification. Meanwhile, in some countries, teachers aren’t allowed to seize and search students’ phones.

In New Zealand, for example, the country’s Education and Training Act of 2020 prevents teachers from reading students’ texts without permission. By law, they’re only allowed to ask a student to hand over their phone if they have “reasonable grounds” to think that the phone will endanger others or “detrimentally affect the learning environment.” 

The American Civil Liberties Union has also pointed out that students have a right to privacy when it comes to their electronic devices. “Indiscriminate cell phone searches threaten students’ privacy rights in ways that have never before been possible,” the ACLU stated in a 2011 report.

Can my teachers legally check my texts?

“The right to privacy is one of our most basic and cherished constitutional rights.” A year earlier, the ACLU settled a lawsuit in Pennsylvania for $33,000 over an unlawful search of a student’s phone in the state by school officials. 

But privacy concerns about unlawful searches of students’ cell phones are somewhat dwarfed by some schools’ planned use of electronic device-monitoring technology used in prisons, among other places.

Luckily for students, courts have placed clear limitations on how schools are allowed to govern cell phone use and have issued important and precedential rulings to prevent school administrators and teachers from violating fundamental rights to privacy and against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Learn more about the law by reading more blogs.