Texting Relationships Between Students and Staff

Legal Brief

IMAGINE A MOTHER walks into your school administration office with her daughter’s cell phone records. There are multiple pages of calls and text messages from the same number. The parent tells you that she believes that the phone number belongs to a teacher.

You run a quick check and discover the text messages came from the student’s social studies teacher. You call the teacher into your office. He explains that he gives his cell phone number to all of his students to help with homework. You ask about this student specifically. Why would you have a 90-minute phone call with this student at 3 a.m. about homework?

The teacher claims the student called after a fight with her parents, and he just wanted to be supportive. He has a plausible explanation for each call or text at inappropriate times. You ask to see his text messages, but he refuses. You ask the parent to review the student’s text messages, but the student already has deleted them.