US girl sues school after officials access private naked pics from her mobile

LONDON - A schoolgirl in the US has successfully sued her school after a teacher, who confiscated her mobile, revealed private naked pictures of hers.

The 17-year-old, who was named as N.N. in order to protect her privacy, was using the mobile phone before start of lesson, when her teacher caught her and confiscated the phone.

The school principal then scrolled through N.N.’s mobile phone text messages, e-mails and photographs and found the explicit naked images in the gallery.

N.N. was made to serve a three-day suspension from her high school in north-east Pennsylvania in January last year.

But papers filed in court said that the images, which had been taken the previous evening - out of school - had not been sent to anyone - and were only meant for the eyes of N.N. and her boyfriend.

The lawsuit charged the school’s officials in Tunkhannock Area School District with violating N.N.’s First and Fourth Amendment rights by searching her phone after confiscating it.

“I was absolutely horrified and humiliated to learn that school officials, men in the DA’s office and police had seen naked pictures of me,” the Daily Mail quoted N.N. as saying in a statement.

The school district denied any liability or wrongdoing, but agreed to pay N.N. and her attorneys 33,000 dollars to settle the case.

“School administrators have no more right to look through personal photographs stored on a student’s cell phone then they have the right to rummage through her purse, read her diary and mail, or view her family photo album,” American Civil Liberties Union’s legal director Witold Walczak added. (ANI)