I agree with you on that. And if a kid uses a cell, i can see confiscating it till the day ends. Thats fairly common. But how the heck does that give the school the right to search the contents? A cop on the street can’t search the content of a phone without a warrant,, but a school can??
hmmmmm
And there-in lies the problem. It's an invasion of personal privacy and an unconstitutional seizure of personal property, regardless of the school board's "policy".
The problem is (IMO) that too many parents are willing to let the school system become the proxy-parent and will happily roll over for any and all of this just so they can abdicate their personal responsibility as that parent.
It's sick, twisted and exactly what the Federal School System wants.....your children.
In the process, they'll deny those children and parents any and all the rights that they can in "the interest of the children". Sick & twisted.
Technology is raising all kinds of interesting legal questions.
Does a school have the right to tell a student that pornography electronically stored on a phone or laptop is prohibited? I don't think that anyone would have an issue with a school prohibiting a student from bringing in a pornographic magazine in a backpack. Same principle.
Actually, your second question is exactly backwards in its assumption. Law enforcement has the most restrictions, not the least, in their abilities to perform searches. Because of their potential for abuse of civil liberties and their training, the courts give law enforcement personnel very strict search requirements. Employers (and I assume by analogy, school officials) have leeway in searches that law enforcement personnel would never be given.