Stevenson University Caught Requiring Access To Private Student Facebook Accounts

Playing college athletics is a privilege and not a right. However, student-athletes do not lose their civil rights when they enter the locker room.  In an insightful and troubling ESPN Outside the Lines Report, it was uncovered that a now former student-athlete at Stevenson University was forced to quit her school's athletic team because she refused to abide by an illegal and discriminatory social media policy. The policy required the women's ice hockey student-athletes to provide their coaches access to their personal social media accounts.

Requiring students to provide coaches and administrators access to personal digital accounts is not just a privacy issue but also a personal safety, cyber security, and civil rights matter.  Does a coach have a legal right to demand to see what political candidate a student-athlete supports?  Does a college administrator have a legal right to see if a student-athlete likes a page that may indicate their sexual preference?  Does a coach have a legal right to see all of your personal messages to your friends and family?  

Maryland was the first state in 2012 to enact legislation to generally ban employers from demanding access to personal social media accounts and it was also the first state to introduce legislation to protect students from being required to turn over the same information to schools. While Maryland was the first state to introduce legislation to protect personal student social media accounts it wasn't able to enact a state law on the matter until earlier this year when it became the 13th state to do so.  

While the student-athlete who was profiled by ESPN was harmed by Stevenson University's clearly unethical and illegal social media policy, it doesn't appear she has a claim under Maryland's new student social media privacy law that went into effect on June 1, 2015. However, she may have a claim under the 2012 employee social media privacy law if she worked in some type of capacity for the university. On the federal level, there may be potential Title IX, federal computer crime law (i.e. the Stored Communications Act), Office of Civil Rights claims, etc... If Stevenson University's illegal social media policy was in effect after June 1, 2015 the school may have additional legal challenges on the horizon.

The bar to settle this type of matter was set at $70,000 per student last year when a Minnesota student received this amount to settle a similar situation.  Since the student profiled in the ESPN piece appears to have been clearly harmed by her university's illegal policy her damages may be significantly higher than $70,000. Every student who was told they must provide access to their personal social media account to participate in a school sponsored activity may also be entitled to at least $70,000.

There appears to be approximately 24 students on the Stevenson University Women's ice hockey team this year.  If 24 students participated on last year's team and they were required to provide access to their personal social media accounts, Stevenson University may be on the hook to compensate each student-athlete at least $70,000.  For example, 24*$70,000=$1,680,000 in potential damages just for last year's team.

If last year's social media policy was in effect this year that could cause additional trouble for Stevenson. While the new Maryland law caps state damages at $1,000 per student plus reasonable attorney fees and court costs, this law doesn't affect potential damages under federal law. If the student-athletes band together and obtain joint legal representation they may be able to file a class action lawsuit and the total damages against the university could theoretically reach $2,000,000+.  

Stevenson needs to become transparent about this matter and held accountable.  How long has their illegal and discriminatory social media policy be in effect?  How many students were required to abide by this policy?  Did the policy just apply to female ice hockey players?  If not, who else. These are just some of the many questions that Stevenson must answer.

The bottom line is that universities need to better understand the legal ramifications of their social media policies and engage those who actually understand best practices. The legal issues involved are very serious and trump the personal/university branding issues that many schools focus on.

Copyright 2015 by The Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC All rights reserved.

NLRB Refers To Northwestern's Illegal Social Media Policy in Ruling Student Athletes May Unionize

In a ground breaking ruling earlier today, the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board ruled today that Northwestern University scholarship football players are employees of the school and are eligible to form the nation's first college athletes' union.  According to ESPN's Lester Munson, the ruling is very well-reasoned.

As part of the rationale as to why Northwestern's scholarship football players are to be considered employees rather than student-athletes the ruling mentions Northwestern's illegal student-athlete social networking policy.  On page 5 it states, "[t]he players must also abide by a social media policy, which restricts what they can post on the Internet, including Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.  In fact, the players are prohibited from denying a coach's "friend" request and the former's posting are monitored." 

Northwestern's student-athlete social networking policy is in clear violation of Illinois Public Act 098-0129.  This act states, "It is unlawful for a post-secondary school to request or require a student or his or her parent or guardian to provide a password or other related account information in order to gain access to the student's account or profile on a social networking website or to demand access in any manner to a student's account or profile on a social networking website."

On August 14, 2013, I wrote that Northwestern will be required to change its student-athlete social media policy before 1/1/2014 because of Illinois' new social media privacy law.  Unfortunately, this did not occur and its illegal policy was utilized against them in analyzing that a student-athlete is an employee and not a student.  

While this ruling may eventually be overturned, it should serve as a wake up call to NCAA schools that highly regulate their student-athletes' digital usage.  Athletic departments that enforce strict social media policies and/or utilize social media monitoring companies may soon have more legal and financial issues to confront than anticipated.  Continuing to deploy social media monitoring companies to watch student-athletes online may encourage other administrative and/or judicial bodies to conclude that student-athletes are not students but employees.

NCAA athletic departments should be careful for what they wish for.  With access comes responsibility.  Strictly regulating student-athletes' personal digital lives will create tremendous legal and financial problems. 

Copyright 2014 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC  All rights reserved.

Illinois Enacts Right To Privacy in the School Setting Act

Illinois has recently become the 2nd state in the country to enact social media privacy legislation that provides protection to the personal digital accounts of K-12 and post-secondary students. Michigan was the first state to enact social media privacy protections for K-12 and post-secondary students last year.  Multiple other states across the country have enacted social media privacy laws that protect post-secondary school students.   

The Right to Privacy in the School Setting Act was enacted because of several troubling social media related situations in Illinois.  For example, there was an incident where an Illinois public middle school violated the constitutional rights of several students by requiring some students to turn over their Facebook and email usernames and passwords.

Unfortunately, this aspect of the act is very troubling and will have unintended consequences:

Section 10. Prohibited inquiry.
(d) This Section does not apply when a post-secondary school has reasonable cause to believe that a student's account on a social networking website contains evidence that the student violated a school disciplinary rule or policy.

 Northwestern University will be required to change its student-athlete social media policy before 1/1/2014 due to the new law.  Northwestern's Online Soical Networking Student-Athlete policy states,  "You must provide full access to members of your coaching staff and/or selected members of the Athletics Department for any and all personal online networking pages." and "You must fully participate in any system developed by your coaching staff to assist in self-monitoring your teammates' personal online networking pages (e.g., buddy system)." This language clearly violates the new law. 

As a parent of young children, I would never turn over the passwords of their personal digital accounts absent a warrant and/or a court order and I believe this law is poorly drafted.  Does this law violate the Stored Communications Act and/or a student's first and/or 4th amendment?  Time will tell.

The bottom line is that K-12 and post-secondary schools must ensure they do not create social media policies that violate state/federal laws and/or our Constitution.  Its ironic that social media was intended to expand the freedom of speech; unfortunately, the reality is that some institutions that don't like the messages being created are using social media to curtail free speech rights.   

Copyright 2013 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC All rights reserved. 

CA School District Lodi Implements Unconstitutional Student Social Media Policy

Colleges and high schools across the country are implementing unconstitutional social media policies that are requiring state legislatures, Congress, and the courts to  show them the error of their ways.  For example, Utah State and Northwestern University implemented clearly unconstitutional social media policies directed at their student-athletes.  Due to these policies, Utah and Illinois enacted legislation banning these schools' social media policies. 

The Lodi Unified School District in California recently enacted a student social media policy that infringes on the 1st amendment rights of those who participate in extracurricular activities.   This new policy covers student-athletes, student newspaper reporters, band members, chess club members, the glee club, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender club, etc...  The policy clearly violates the First Amendment. As Tinker v. Des Moines states, "students do not shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."

In addition to violating the First Amendment, this new policy violates California Education Code Section 48907 that protects students' free speech rights in California.  The bottom line is that K-12 schools and post-secondary schools must be more aware of the policies that their administrators are implementing to ensure they don't create tremendous legal liability.

Copyright 2013 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC All rights reserved. 

Arkansas Bans NCAA Student-Athlete Social Media Monitoring Companies

Arkansas has became the latest state to enact legislation that bans schools from deploying social media monitoring firms to track their students' personal digital accounts.  Arkansas joins Delaware, California, Michigan, New Jersey and Utah in protecting their schools, students, and taxpayers from fear and misinformation.

Consultants who sell student-athlete social media monitoring services to athletic departments are selling legal liability time bombs.  Deadspin has already exposed several companies as having no connection to college athletics before starting their "social media monitoring firms". Some companies that are approaching colleges appear to be making material misrepresentations to market their services.

One consultant quoted me (who appears to have no verifiable experience in college athletics, social media, law, or compliance before he started selling his services to NCAA schools) in a press release touting his social media monitoring service last year.  Quoting me to market a service that may create tremendous legal liability for NCAA schools is very troubling. Lawyers and risk professionals who understand this issue would never endorse a service that may increase a school's legal liability and/or may advise an academic institution to violate state and/or federal law.

The bottom line is that states across the country are banning schools from being able to deploy firms to monitor and archive their students' personal digital content.  These laws may cumulatively save schools around the United States hundreds of millions of dollars in monitoring, legal, compliance, and insurance costs.

To learn more about these issues you may contact me at www.shearlaw.com.

Copyright 2013 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC All rights reserved.

Penn State scandal proves NCAA schools should not social media monitor student athletes

The Penn State child molestation case against former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky is already the worst college sports scandal of all time. It appears that Penn State officials may have had actual knowledge of the allegations against Sandusky since either 1999 or 2002 and did not take the appropriate actions necessary to stop him.

It is too soon to speculate, but it is possible that Penn State may have tremendous legal liability regarding the allegations against Sandusky even though Sandusky has not been an employee of the university since his retirement in 1999. These allegations have already led to reports that Penn State's bond rating may be downgraded in anticipation of the potential legal liability. If Penn State's bond rating is lowered it may make it more expensive for the school to borrow money for capital projects which may in turn harm Pennsylvania taxpayers and students who attend the university.

It does not appear that Sanduksy created any incriminating social media posts about his alleged illegal activity. If Sandusky committed his crimes off campus on his own time and Penn State had no knowledge of his alleged wrongdoing it most likely would be difficult for Sandusky's alleged victims to win a civil suit against Penn State. However, if Penn State was aware of Sandusky's alleged criminal activities and failed to stop him the school may have major legal liability issues to defend against.

NCAA schools do not have a legal duty to monitor the social media content of their student-athletes. However, there are some schools that are creating the duty to monitor their student-athletes' public and private social media content. I have discussed the numerous constitutional and legal liability issues involved with social media monitoring student-athletes on multiple occasions.

If a school decides to create the duty to monitor its student-athletes social media content and fails to prevent a student-athlete from committing a crime or an incident that creates civil liability that may have been noticed via the student's social media activity the school may have Penn State like liability issues to defend against.

After the Penn State scandal, I find it hard to believe that a school would even think about creating a duty to monitor the social media content of its student-athletes. If Penn State had a monitoring policy in place for its student-athletes or employees and missed any social media posts that hinted at any illegal activity Penn State's liability for this terrible tragedy would be even greater than it already may be.

To learn more about these issues you may contact me at http://shearlaw.com.

Copyright 2011 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.