Student files suit after coach distributed private Facebook content
Found on Student Press Law Center on Monday, 27 July 2009
A Mississippi high school student is suing her school district after a teacher logged into the student's social networking account and distributed information that embarrassed her and led to her removal from the team.
On Sept. 10, 2007, Pearl High School cheerleading coach Tommie Hill required each member of the cheerleading squad to reveal the passwords to their Facebook accounts, according to the suit.
According to the suit, the officials "reprimanded, punished, and humiliated" Jackson for an exchange of profanity-laced messages between Jackson and the cheerleading captain in which Jackson asked the student to "stop harassing" several of the cheerleaders.
The coach Tommie Hill should be removed immediately. There is simply no reason for him to demand password and snoop through private messages. Looking for drug/smoking photos isn't an excuse at all; the current sitation proves that Hill would have possibly mailed such photos around too. Of course one could assume that he was looking for some more "interesting" photos; after all, it was the cheerleader team he demanded the passwords from.