Parental Eavesdropping
ray a
5,703 Posts
Striking a blow for rebellious teenagers, the Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday that state law prohibits parents from eavesdropping on a child's phone conversations.
The case reached the high court because of a purse-snatching. A 17-year-old boy was convicted of the robbery, in part on testimony from his girlfriend's mother, who overhead him discussing the crime on the phone with her daughter.
The daughter had taken a cordless phone into her bedroom and closed the door. In another room, her mother pressed the speakerphone button on an extension, listened in and took notes.
The court ruled that the daughter and her boyfriend had a reasonable expectation of privacy on the phone...The boyfriend will get a new trial.
OK, who is the real lawbreaker in this case, the eavesdropping mother, the complicit daughter, or the theiving boy?
The case reached the high court because of a purse-snatching. A 17-year-old boy was convicted of the robbery, in part on testimony from his girlfriend's mother, who overhead him discussing the crime on the phone with her daughter.
The daughter had taken a cordless phone into her bedroom and closed the door. In another room, her mother pressed the speakerphone button on an extension, listened in and took notes.
The court ruled that the daughter and her boyfriend had a reasonable expectation of privacy on the phone...The boyfriend will get a new trial.
OK, who is the real lawbreaker in this case, the eavesdropping mother, the complicit daughter, or the theiving boy?
Comments
But in answer to your question, you wrote them in the wrong order. 1 - the thieving (i before e except after c) boy, 2 - the daughter and 3 - the mother.
In this case didn’t the local law enforcement ask this mother to help investigate? What if this was related to a murder and she put a recording on the line as in Scott and Amber? OK, let’s see, we have taken the ten commandments out of school, teach kids how to put on a condom, provide daycare for unwed teen mothers who are still in school, tried to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance, and now we as parents have no ‘rights’ to monitor phone conversations our kids have? Where do we go from here? Will this have any implications in the workplace? We state that we have a right to monitor all electronic communications and also to perform a search of person and/or property.
OK, I’ll step off the box now.
I've been to many a counseling session while trying to "blend" families with my 2nd husband. I can tell you there are a lot of "experts" who say that kids do indeed have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Always the example/discussion used is if a parent suspects that their child is doing drugs..... I can tell you that all of the "experts" always sided with the right of privacy for the child.
And, (still being the x}> 's advocate) I don't think that the teenager should have been convicted just because some one's mother said he did it because she overheard a conversation. I don't think the issue was really about what kinds of rights children have to privacy or how much.
Brad Forrister
VP/Content
M. Lee Smith Publishers
Sorry, I subscribe to the archaic tought that if it involves my children, living under my roof, utilizing things that I provide, then I have the reasonable expectation to know what the hell is going on at any given time.
Gene
[url]http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=eavesdrop10m&date=20041210&query=Washington+Supreme+Court[/url]
Maybe the real thieves are the courts for wasting tax dollars!
Go ahead an listen in.
Linda