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Use of private emails in school suspension?

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quantumchef

Junior Member
Hello,

I am in WA state. My friends daughter received a very threatening note passed to her by another student demanding that she meet her for a fight. She is in the 8th grade. The girl that sent the note to her was jealous and angry because her boyfriend broke up with her and then showed interest in dating my friends daughter. My friends daughter turned the note in to the school office.

The girl that wrote the note denied being the person who started the "fighting" and said that she was responding to something my friends daughter did. This is not true.

The principle suspended my friends daughter as well as the other girl because he said he could not tell who started it and told her she was the possible instigator of it - So - she was the victim and got suspended for turning in the letter.

My friends daughter has a MySpace page and has consistently received very threatening and horrible emails calling her every name in the book from this other girl. My friends daughter has consistently written back saying she is not interested in fighting and to please stop harassing her.

My question is this - the principle has asked to see the MySpace emails since they seem to prove who has been the instigator. I am concerned about the legality of turning over what was private emails on MySpace that happened off school time and property in to the principle. I am not sure it would be legal to use them?????

Thank you for your thoughts......

QC
 


BL

Senior Member
It's legal if your daughter or you agree .

I'd suggest waiting out the suspension , saving the emails , then making a new my space if your daughter wants one .

Typical in schools these days .

Now you have electronics .
 

The Occultist

Senior Member
Woah, BL, maybe I've been in the wrong forums but have not seen a post from you in awhile!

Anywho, the law is not an issue at this point. The principal has a job to protect the school's learning environment, and has rightfully suspended both students because neither can be shown to be truly responsible for these events. If "your friend" consents (not necessarily the daughter since minors don't really have such rights), then it is legal to share the correspondence. I'm sure "your friend" will have no problem sharing this if "your friend's daughter" is truly as innocent as you have been led to believe, n'est-ce pas?
 

quantumchef

Junior Member
The events are truthful as I wrote them and my friends daughter (YES she is my friends daughter - I do not have children) does not have an issue with her mom sharing the emails as she truly did not instigate the whole thing. She is a bit nervous about the repercussion in terms of retaliation from the other girl.

I really did think that exposing privately written emails was a legal issue. I was under the impression that on something like a myspace that my friend could get in trouble for providing private information without getting some kind of court order. Of course she is only dealing with a middle school principle not the courts but I was concerned that she was stepping over some kind of line by exposing this girls emails.
 

las365

Senior Member
Technically, there is a question as to whether email is private at all. It's transmitted through multiple servers and service providers over airwaves (or whatever they are) some of which are public, and is so easily accessed by parties other than those for whom it is intended that one may not even have a reasonable expectation of privacy when using it.

But that aside, generally once one has written and sent a communication to another, the communication is the property of the recipient, who can do pretty much whatever he or she wants with it. There are exceptions, of course, such as attorney-client privilege. No such privilege exists for emails that contains threats to beat up a middleschooler.

And yeah, I'm gathering speed on my journey to old fart-dom, but an 8th grader does not need a Myspace page. That place is nothing but trouble for little (and big) kids.
 

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