School official accused of accessing student's Facebook account
EVERETT, Wash. -- There are 484 friends on Samantha Negrete's Facebook page. None of them are teachers or staff at North Middle School in Everett.
That didn't prevent one of them from allegedly accessing her private page.
"Her right to privacy was violated," said Kevin McCollum, Negrete's stepfather. "What happened is not respectful. It is a violation of her trust."
McCollum said Negrete, a standout athlete and good student at the school, came to her parents in tears last Thursday. She said she'd been called to the middle school's front office to meet with an assistant principal.
"He logged out (of his page) and said, 'Log into your Facebook page.'" said Negrete's mom, Connie Becerra. "She then said that she turned around and said, 'Why am I doing this?' and was told, 'Log into your Facebook page, please.' So, through fear, she logged into her Facebook page."
"He proceeded to sit down and go through students' pages and opened up numerous kids' Facebooks and looked through pictures and postings," Becerra said.
"Finally Sami said, 'What are you looking for?' and he said, 'I'm looking for a picture your friend had posted,'" recounted McCollum.
A student at the school was later called into the front office and suspended as a result of what administrators saw, McCollum said.
"There was no right for anybody to come in and ask her to open up her personal information to obtain any information about anybody else," added Becerra. "That's just something you cannot do."
The Everett Public School district is now investigating what happened, said Mary Waggoner, director of communications. She added that school administrators were looking for evidence of cyberbullying, which may have taken place during school hours using a cell phone. That would be a violation of district policy.
"What we do know is the bullying took place and the technicalities of how that was uncovered are part of that investigative process," Waggoner said.
When asked if a student was ordered to log in to her Facebook page as part of the district's investigation, Waggoner said, "That is part of the investigation."
The American Civil Liberties Union is also investigating, and is now working with the family to see if Negrete's civil rights and privacy were violated.
"Students' private communication is private," said Linda Mangel, with the ACLU of Washington. "Just because it's in Facebook or email or on a cell phone doesn't give schools any more right to search that than they would have to ask you to bring in your personal journal or diary from home and read it cover to cover."
The district said it could have the results of its investigation as early as Friday.
"I want kids to know they have rights," Becerra said. "the (school's) job is to keep our children safe and to give them a good education, not to bring them in and scare them."
That didn't prevent one of them from allegedly accessing her private page.
"Her right to privacy was violated," said Kevin McCollum, Negrete's stepfather. "What happened is not respectful. It is a violation of her trust."
McCollum said Negrete, a standout athlete and good student at the school, came to her parents in tears last Thursday. She said she'd been called to the middle school's front office to meet with an assistant principal.
"He logged out (of his page) and said, 'Log into your Facebook page.'" said Negrete's mom, Connie Becerra. "She then said that she turned around and said, 'Why am I doing this?' and was told, 'Log into your Facebook page, please.' So, through fear, she logged into her Facebook page."
"He proceeded to sit down and go through students' pages and opened up numerous kids' Facebooks and looked through pictures and postings," Becerra said.
"Finally Sami said, 'What are you looking for?' and he said, 'I'm looking for a picture your friend had posted,'" recounted McCollum.
A student at the school was later called into the front office and suspended as a result of what administrators saw, McCollum said.
"There was no right for anybody to come in and ask her to open up her personal information to obtain any information about anybody else," added Becerra. "That's just something you cannot do."
The Everett Public School district is now investigating what happened, said Mary Waggoner, director of communications. She added that school administrators were looking for evidence of cyberbullying, which may have taken place during school hours using a cell phone. That would be a violation of district policy.
"What we do know is the bullying took place and the technicalities of how that was uncovered are part of that investigative process," Waggoner said.
When asked if a student was ordered to log in to her Facebook page as part of the district's investigation, Waggoner said, "That is part of the investigation."
The American Civil Liberties Union is also investigating, and is now working with the family to see if Negrete's civil rights and privacy were violated.
"Students' private communication is private," said Linda Mangel, with the ACLU of Washington. "Just because it's in Facebook or email or on a cell phone doesn't give schools any more right to search that than they would have to ask you to bring in your personal journal or diary from home and read it cover to cover."
The district said it could have the results of its investigation as early as Friday.
"I want kids to know they have rights," Becerra said. "the (school's) job is to keep our children safe and to give them a good education, not to bring them in and scare them."
READ THE FACTS! The girl that was accussed of cyber bullying was suspended for using her phone on school grounds and nothing mentioned about bullying. Samantha was not even a student in question. The accussed bully is back to school after a one day suspension and living life and continuing to spread rumors. Reports are being made that  Samantha has been called a snitch, tattle tale and spit on for the last 2 weeks. This child has barely attended school. So when you all state remarks about a child being saved from committing suicide when they accessed Samanthas page...who in the hell will save this child from ending her life! If he was in the "right" for what he was doing then why were students that were expelled allowed back to school? Read the facts!
I am a student at North Middle School, and one of my friends who also is a student, her name is Jadelynn Sapphire Bowen her facebook was hacked into by the assistant principal at North, he and the officer both looked through all of Jade's private messages between her and her friends. After they had searched through her messages, they called her down to the office to suspend her.
As a student at northmiddle school this worries me they need to fire this person from the school he has already been relocated to another school for harassment why are we going to keep letting him harass students FIRE HIM
My daughter was planning on reporting some harassment at school she saw on her Facebook page. However since this story has broken, she has reconsidered. She doesn't want Ms Lancaster at Everett High find out that she follows Rihanna and Taylor Swift on her Facebook page. Too embarrassing. I'm sure the bullying is no big deal anyways.
I will always support any child that stands up to bullying. If that includes showing her Facebook account that is fine with me. And it is fine with all my friends and their kids. To stand behind facebook privacy is silly. The whole argument is silly. Kids bullied are often scarred for life, and some take their own life. Pretty sure your daughter will be ok for revealing harassment through her facebook page. Stop putting a negative on a positive. Heroes are often criticized by those that are fearful.
I don't know anything about the students or parents involved in this case, however the assistant pricipal at North used to work at Eisenhower. My student and I had many problems with him and found him to be a bully. I was able to document him lying to me and trying to make things more difficult for my son, which I did pass along to the administration. Not sure if anything was done, but MY problem was solved when he was moved to North. I feel sorry for the students and the parents there. To the girls mom - do not let this slide. I am sure it is not an isolated incident, knowing who is involved.
@Everett Mom We would like to get in touch with you.
@Connie Becerra @Everett Mom How can I privately contact you? I cannot find you on facebook or I would have already sent you a message.
@Everett Mom @Connie Becerra Sorry for the late response. I am on facebook under Connie Becerra or feel free to message Samantha Negrete on her  facebook and I can see your message there.
Sorry Barecera.  My daughter was 12, she gets a break, you should have known better not to go there.  You can say that you didn't bring one of the fighters to the park, you can say that a parent pulled the hair of a girl  But both statements are untrue.  I watched the video, which did not involve my daughter, and only one adult was there...you.  You have trouble with facts.  And this is my concern, there is more than one side to a story.  But, again congrats to your daughter for helping to expose bullying behavior in our schools.  Too bad my daughter didn't have your daughter at school while she was being harassed.  No one stood up for her. Â
@everettmom1970Â Clearly there is a timeline filled with skewed 'facts', implications and accusations. Â Unfortunately involving people like her, some things never change.Â
This girls' age is seriously listed as '28' and she 'works' at Victoria Secrets? Reeaallly???
@everettmom1970
I apologize that you did not have the support system you needed during the time your daughter was being bullied. North has always done a great job in trying to eliminate any issues between the students. As parents it is OUR job to communicate with our children and staff. Put your daughter in my daughters shoes....kids were suspended for what was accessed through her page. She has been called a snitch and is now dealing with bullying as well as fearful that she can't trust anyone and this is all her fault. You mentioned you wish your daughter had someone to stop her bully from harassing her....Well I am Samanthaâs mother and will put a stop to her bully.
The girls that were in the fight can tell you that one was already at the park and the second child was driven by her boyfriend. Public records will show you an assault charge was made against the mother whom had pulled one of the girlâs hair and had smacked her in the face. This may have been done by accident but you can still be charged with assault hence the reason why I chose to not physically get involved.
To attack Connie  and say what you have is ridiculous. Connie has always been there for ALL of the kids in the neighborhood. Every morning she made breakfast and kids would go over and eat before getting on the bus. She watched us at the bus stop and always told us to be respectful to each other and gave us the lecture on not doing drugs and staying in school. I remember helping unload her truck at North Middle where she donated food every week for the weekend back pack program. Her daughters also donated the most food ever to North during the food drive. She also makes free birthday cakes for foster kids and make a wish foundation. With all of her involvement in the school and being as well known as she is with all of the students and staff at North there is no reason why they could not have called her to ask permission to cruise her daughters facebook page.
The day of the fight at the park between some girls I remember Connie asking where the girls lived and we drove to their houses to get their parents. No parent was home and the one girls aunt called the mom. She asked that Connie go to the park and wait for the police to arrive and she was on her way. It would have been nice if the police would have shown up sooner but we were told they were at another fight down the street in the alley. This happens a lot. Know where your kids are and what they are doing. Â
Yes He went to far. He should ask the person he suspected & the parents. For a meeting. Shame Shame.Â
I know Ms. Becerra. Â Two years ago, my daughter came home with a cell phone video she took of 8th grade girls fighting at the park. Â Guess what? Â Ms. Becerra was there, brought one of the fighters there, watched the fight and encouraged the girls to "fight fair." Â Talk about a violation of rights!!! Â I bet the ACLU would like that video. Â Her daughter did the right thing to stop cyber bullying it sounds.Â
@everettmom1970 It was approximatley 3 years ago.  Your daughter bringing home a video of the fight speaks loudly enough. Your statement that I brought the fighters to the park is incorrect, neither one of them were my daughter. When I was told about the fight, Mrs. Sheppard the principal was notified ASAP and I let her know I was heading to the park until the police arrived. You are correct when you mention that I told the kids to "fight fair" after numerous girls continued to jump in. I continued to stay at the park awaiting for the police. I told kids to go home numerous times. You will see a parent jumping in and hitting one of the girls as well as pulling their hair. I refuse to put my hands on another persons child.  One of the girls parents thanked me for not walking away and trying to keep ohers from jumping in.
Let's keep to the facts. Did you call the police? Did you know your daughter was part of this fight?
Fact is: No cyber bullying was found and the child in question was suspended for using her phone at school. Fact is: The assistant could have notified parents of his concerns before intruding on privacy.
All of these social sites are huge holes in overall security in all of the electronicÂ
devices that use them. Facebook is no exception.
Home computers and smart phones did not exist during my K-12 school years, but
if they had and such a demand/request had been by ANY of the school staff, I amÂ
afraid that I would have told them to F_OFF. The young lady did have had soundÂ
legal rights to refuse any such a demand or request, but obviously was not aware ofÂ
that fact.Â
It is too bad that the school apparently forgot to teach the Bill of Rights, and other
constitutional guarantees or else the young lady would have known that the schoolÂ
official could not legally make such a demand or request.  That fact is specially
true when confronting minors---They too have constitutionally guaranteed rights.
My daughter has now graduated from college, but if her middle school, or high
school had pulled such a stunt, they would have been addressing the courtsÂ
immediately afterwards regarding the violation of her personal privacy plusÂ
other issues as well.
I am 68 years old now and a retired electronic technician.
Well without knowing the extent of what exactly the nature of the photo was I reserve judgment.. but if someone is using their facebook to bully another student on the net school administrators if they are expected to prevent bullying they need some tools to do so!....otherwise parents need to teach their children more RESPECT so schools don't have to!
@Freespeech Without proper documentation (a warrant) it was an illegal search
irrespective of their motive in conducting such a search. Minors are subject toÂ
the same constitutional guarantees and rights as adults. Â
Therefore this action was not legal.
@Freespeech I agree they should be allowed the tools needed to obtain the information. My daughter was not the accused bully. The child that was in question should have been notified and then her mother should have been called. The picture was of a female student that the alleged bully had taken a picture of while at school. No negative headers were made nor were there any negative comments. The two girls that were not getting along at that time have apologized to each other for the way they have been treating each other and are now friends.
I am the mother of Samantha Negrete. She has a FB account that is monitored and easily accessible to me as I see fit. Samantha is an outstanding student whom gets along with everyone including the children that do not like each other. Samantha was not the child in question in regards to the possible cyber bullying....she was just the "information gateway" that an administrator seen fit to invade upon. The child that was being investigated has a mother whom is very involved with the school. There was no reason why this mother was not contacted and spoken to about their concerns. Information was obtained to "use" against another child in case they denied allegations. Teach your children to be kind to all and to be respectful. We also want our children to know that they have rights! The school was investigating a possible bullying report, but in fact became the bully. Bullying consists of three basic types of abuse â emotional, verbal, and physical. It typically involves subtle methods of coercion such as intimidation.
@Connie Becerra - knowing who the administrator is, he is a bully. I dealt with him when he was at Eisenhower. (see my post above)
@Connie Becerra So you are ok with her age listed as 28 and working at Victoria's Secret?
I don't want to blame this student, but it's a shame that our youth don't even know their basic rights. This student should have said NO and immediately called home.Â
@lakeview She felt she did not have the option to say no due to the assistant telling her "log into your facebook." Samantha has never been in trouble or reprimanded and felt that if she said no that he would suspend her.
BTW, the best thing you could do for your daughter is to get her off Facebook.Â
@Connie Becerra @lakeview I'm sure she did what most students would do. It's not her fault. And yes, she was bullied herself by this assistant principal. But she consented to the search, so I'm not sure what legal standing you really have. It's not like the assistant principal hacked or stole her password, she gave it to him essentially.Â
At my son's middle school, one of the kids brought in printed FB pages from home to the principal to report a bullying incident, and the parents were contacted. I thought that was OK. I think it should start with the student that is the victim, not with an  authority figure trolling around looking for problems (they will find tons!).Â
This is relatively new technology and we are breaking new grounds and setting new precedents here. That's why it's so difficult, yet important.
I agree that parents should have been notified before the child was asked to login. As a parent of a child the same age, at the same school, I applaud the tenacity of bully prevention.  But that can't come at the price of violating the law. Children over age 13 are of 'legal' age on the internet and do not need parent permission in relation to their online content. Scary, but true.
COMMOM SENSE: Â A middle schooler is not old enough to have a "private" Internet account. MY son was logged on BY ME until he was 16 (minimum) and did not know the computer password. The ONE time he changed the password -after he was allowed to know it and tried to outsmart ME - I put parental controls on his computer and he could not log onto the computer at all. He does not hate me, he respects me for it today and understands I was protecting HIM.
If there was a complaint from another child (to a teacher) that this child was bullying her I will not fault the teacher for showing the OTHER child (S)he can be trusted to protect her. However, the parents should have been informed about it along with the reason. I think it is a GREAT idea personally; because some parents do NOT supervise what their little darlings do, and THAT is shame.Â
There is no such as a perfectly child, or a good child that may not slip up and go with the crowd. Children into their twenties - it is all a time of learning. If the parents don't teach them,, the schools need to for the sake of society. Â I Â the "Kids will be kids" argument for bullying because parents are to lazy to teach your children right from wrong.
@Delores Kirkwood  This search was a violation of the young ladies personalÂ
privacy and was conducted without a warrant. Irrespective of the motives involved,Â
privacy laws and unauthorized search laws were ignored by the school and the searchÂ
by the school was in fact illegal. Read your constitution. Minors have the same
guaranteed rights and protection under the constitution as an adult.
you are so wrong Delores. The right to privacy is very clear in the United States. You will need to understand or read up on the laws. This administrator will either be suspended or fired. Technically the family can also sue the school district for violating this federal law.
@Delores Kirkwood The student very well may have a parent approved FB account, that she was NOT using at school. The administrator was wholly in the WRONG, and should be officially reprimanded as NO ONE at the school has the authority to do what is alleged. Essentially, the administrator 'bullied' the student using his position of authority over her in a threatening (implied) manner.
I think there will soon be a new owner of the Everett School District.
Hmmm.... Should the kid have been bullying online? No. Is it ok that the school official ordered the student to log in through her account so they could investigate? No.Â
I tell my kids that if ANYTHING happens at school that he is unsure about or doesn't know what to do, call me. I will take care of it.Â
Well this admin would have had an issue with me growing up as well as having an issue with my children in a few years. I was raised with a backbone and self respect! I know there are things that they had a right to demand which was outlined in the student handbook and I actually read that as well as my parents. Beyond that if they tried to pressure me into choices beyond what I felt was a reasonable demand (it did happen twice in high school) I simply sat back, gave them the typical dirty teen look and told them "call my mom". LOL So they did. The first time they tried explaining the situation in THEIR words, skewing the situation into a better light and I yelled "that isn't true" and she demanded I be put on the phone. She demanded a face to face from then on.Â
My kids are being raised the same way. Be respectful of authority, but do not let them push you around if they are in the wrong. Simply go to the office and demand they call me and sit down. They will call me eventually if only because they want you dealt with! I WILL deal with them. We've had issues with bullying in the elementary school already and my son was so emotional that recess attendant would tell him to go play instead of address incidents. Yeah, that didn't fly once he finally admitted what was going on!
Kid needs to learn their rights and could have told the school official to buzz off. Civil rights lawsuit brewing, and for once, a lawsuit that I could support. Even as a kid I was smart enough to know my rights against unreasonable search and seizure. No government official, including school staff, has the right to access your private data, on the Internet or otherwise.
Get rid of Facebook............... problem solved.Â
@SeahawkerÂ
No kidding!
When we "oldsters" were young, the only bullying we really had to worry about was pretty much one-on-one. With the advent of social media what used to be "some one from school" causing you problems has now become someone posting it online & it becoming a thousand fold problem.
Yes, there always have been & always will be bullies. The difference now is the reach they have, the audience, and how much damage they can do, all due to social media.
I was bullied in school (35 years ago) - I shudder to think what my life would have been like if social media had been around back then.
This isn't about civil rights. Â An administrator ASKED her to log in, to which she could have said NO. Â The issue is that the administrator has an assumption of authority, and could have easily made it sound like there was no choice. Â That is wrong.
@ETSubmariner I know when I was in school if a teacher or principal asked me to do something it was telling me to do it in a polite way.  I doubt that the child thought that there was a choice.
@FBrumfield @ETSubmarinerWhen I was a young teen, I pretty much assumed that adults in authority could tell me to do this or that and I had to do it. In this case the school official had the kid violatethe facebook TOS (https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms Section 4, Article 8) through, essentially, an act of bullying.Â
Does anyone see the problem here? School official bullies child to investigate bullying?Â
While one may hold facebook in disdain it is a venue for a lot of teens and adults. Whether it exists in cyberspace or not is mostly irrelevant. This official's actions is akin to following a student to a private home and requiring the student to provide information about their friends, look through their photo albums and read their diaries. This would be completely unacceptable however because this particular venue exists in cyberspace, he seemed to think that it was somehow ok.Â
It is not ok for anyone, adult, or child, to bully someone into violating terms they agreed to for any reason. It is not ok to bully period.Â
They had NO right to look into her facebook page at all, ever. And forcing her to open it up, that principal and all involved should be fired. Â
Wow, after reading some of the comments on this. I am so sick of the "If it saves just one" mentality! Would you burn our entire constitution to save just one? We have rights for a reason, STOP LETTING THEM BE STRIPPED AWAY!
Couldn't this have been handled very easily with a few phone calls to some parents? Â I know I, for one, insist that my kids "friend me" on Facebook so I can monitor what is posted there. Â I can't believe other parents don't do the same - and clearly they don't based on some of the things I've seen posted on Facebook. Â (Yes, I know, kids can create alias facebook accounts or hide some things to get around their parents...but seems most kids want to be as visible as possible so they use their real names)
School administrator or not, anyone treats my daughter this way gets a pop in the nose...I can do a little lock up time. As soon as my daughter reported this to me I would unlock a can of whoop ass, with a pleasant excuse me... and a smile...
@Joe Wooten We are all blessed that you have procreated.
I agree that they could have gone about it differently. Possibly called a parent, spoke with her about why they wanted to access her page, etc. But I think that they were trying to help a situation that needs the upmost attention. Bullying and cyber-bullying. If this was a story about a child who commited suicide or a story about a child who has been horribly bullied and the school know but did nothing, people would be furious. How do I know? Because we see those stories ALL too often. My son is in MS. He goes to Evergreen in Everett. He has a FB. I have his log in and check it almost daily. Parents need to monitor their CHILD'S activity and give them guidelines. I have seen 11 year old girls posting "sexy" pics and 11 year old boys commenting in adult language. It is sad.
Schools have the right to canvas the schools computers to search for information of which is a stagering amount of data and not enough resources to look at what they have. As for asking a student to access their personal account on their private data on a electronic device which is not owned by the school is in fact a violation of the students fundemental right to privacy. Just because a student goes to school doesnt meant that administrators and managment can trample the civil right to privacy of the kids. The principal should have ask the IT dept to investigate for possible issues.
@thorshammer  The fact is they violated the young lady's personal privacy, and
conducted an illegal search. Both are violations of the students constitutional
rights and guarantees. Minor are subject to the same constitutional rights and
guarantees as adults. Irrespective of the school's motivations and intentions
they violated her guaranteed rights. There was no court warrant to validateÂ
such a search.
For those of you that have a kid that brings home a school laptop or ipad - make sure you put tape over the intergrated webcam because you just invited the school district into your home.
Case in point - you get pulled over speeding - can the officer ask you log into your phone / face book account to see if you were texting, talking on your phone while driving or look for e-mails that clears you of being a terrorist ? Just my 2 cents.