Illinois lawmakers are so stupid
As Electronista reports, Illinois lawmakers passed a law the would force students to hand over their social media passwords:
A letter sent to parents in the state states that “If your child has an account on a social networking website, e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, ask.fm, etc., please be aware that State law requires school authorities to notify you that your child may be asked to provide his or her password for these accounts to school officials in certain circumstances.” No subpoena or warrant is required for the demand, just the agreement of school officials. The agreement process isn’t codified in the law, and is left up to school districts to decide what is considered “certain circumstances.”
Superintendent of the Triad district Leigh Lewis in Illinois told Motherboard that there could be criminal charges if parents fail to comply. Lewis said that “if they didn’t turn over the password, we would call our district attorneys because they would be in violation of the law. That would only be in some cases – we’d certainly look at the facts and see what we’re dealing with before we make the decision.”
What a stupid state. There’s no way this holds up in the higher courts.