Teen wins $70K lawsuit settlement over school seizing her Facebook account

A Minnesota school district has reportedly agreed to pay 70,000 dollars as settlement to a student, for violating her constitutional rights by viewing her Facebook and email accounts without permission.

The lawsuit, filed in 2012 by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, claimed that school officials punished Riley Stratton, now 15, for posting disapproving comments about a teacher's aide on her Facebook page, even though she used her own personal computer at home for the same.

According to the New York Post, the ACLU also alleged that administrators viewed her online conversations between the then-Minnewaska Area Middle School sixth-grader and a boy because of a complaint the two were using computers to talk about sex.

Riley said that she was in tears and embarrassed when they made her give over her password.

The teenager was asked to disclose her password by the school following a complaint by a parent about the Facebook chat.

Minnewaska Superintendent Greg Schmidt said that the fact that the posting occurred at home was a factor in settling the case, adding that were a lot of questions about whether schools should discipline kids for things that happen out of school.