“We have to have suspicion.  We won’t go through a students’ cell phone without reason to do so,” Freshman Principal Mario Pupillo said.

The administration’s main goal is to ensure the safety of each and every student.  For example, administration would look through a phone if a student was being bullied via cell phone or social media or if an issue was disruptive to the academic environment.

“It makes sense to take it away, but to look through it is a completely different story.  It is an invasion of privacy. My phone is part of my personal life and my personal life should not interfere with my school life, unless it’s a life or death situation. And that’s rare,” sophomore Claire Webster said.

According to Granite City Superintendent Harry Briggs, ten or 11 Granite City high school students were suspended late October after they sent out inappropriate tweets on their cell phones during the school day.  The students were making sexually explicit remarks about a female teacher.  Briggs compared it to passing notes in an earlier generation.

“Twitter shouldn’t be a reason someone gets suspended unless someone was actually put in real danger.  If administration really wanted to keep us safe, they should look beyond the social media scene and look more into the behavior of students,” senior Kathryn Goetz said.

Students are given an agreement when bringing their own device to school to respect the intentions of the device purpose.  They agree to not abuse the WIFI privilege.  However, they also agree to administration monitoring their search history.

“Not that I have anything to hide, but that is an invasion of privacy. Phones don’t automatically log off the WIFI and if you forget to turn it off after school hours and search for something the school deems as inappropriate then what happens,” sophomore Kate Clyne said. “It seems kind of illegal.”

Students classified this issue as an invasion of privacy unless there is suspicion.  However, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) states that curiosity, rumor or hunch, or even being simply disruptive is not enough to warrant search.

“The CTA policy is no different than our parking lot or locker policy.  To ensure that West High is a safe place to attend school, our administration has the right to search these areas if deemed necessary.  This being said, these searches are extremely rare,” Principal Jeremy Mitchell said.