Student Who Recorded Bullies Tormenting Him Accused of Felony Wiretapping | Hacker News Reader

Student Who Recorded Bullies Tormenting Him Accused of Felony Wiretapping

aattp.org

72 pointsvxNsr16 comments

From the comments section: http://www.southfayette.org/cms/lib03/PA01001917/Centricity/...

From Page 37 of the “South Fayette High School. Student-Parent Hamdbook, 2013-2014:” “Understand you have the right to live without fear and harassment. If you are harassed, there are people who can help. Report the incident to a teacher, parent, guidance counselor or another adult.”

I hope he gets the justice he deserves.

And the authority will often say "without proof, its just your word against theirs".

That why violence is really the only answer to bullying. Hit hard and fast, do enough damage in the first blow to make sure neither he nor his buddies want to come back for seconds.

Fun part is that, if convicted, he'll stand to receive a punishment multiple orders of magnitude greater than the repercussions his tormenters stand (in terms of expectation values) to face, for even a single day of the abuses they suffered upon him.

Or for that matter, those faced by the administrators of his school for allowing the abuses to happen in the first place.

[Directed to those with more legal knowledge] Does an event like this occur because Pennsylvania is a 2-party consent (for recording) state? Would something like this not occur in a 1-party consent state? If so, what are the ramifications for devices like Google Glass? Had the student recorded the bullying on his Glass, I assume he would still be guilty of wiretapping?

Hardly matters, that was just a threat the principle made, the victim was convicted of "disorderly conduct", which normally translates into "contempt of cop" but I guess in this case was contempt of the authorities.

Yes, Pennsylvania requires the consent of all parties to recording a conversation:

"Recording laws vary from state to state, but Pennsylvania is one of just 12 states that require the consent of all parties involved. In the remaining states, consent is not mandatory as long as the person recording is present during the conversation."[1]

When Google Glass is used for recording conversations, it's presumably subject to the same laws.

[1] http://www.vocativ.com/culture/society/special-ed-student-re...

Yes, because Pennsylvania is a 2 party consent state.

However, video is not typically covered by such laws, so if someone had Google Glass and just recorded video, he would not face such legal issues.

For those other keyboard warriors: (Note: this information is publicly available)

District Superintendent, Dr. Bille Pearce Rondinelli: brondinelli@southfayette.org

Dr. Nanci Sullivan, Director of Pupil Personnel: sullivan@southfayette.org

And last but not least, the School District Board Members: http://www.southfayette.org/Page/143

Are we required to get permission from a mugger to record him robbing us?

I find irony in how Americans Against the Tea Party is sourcing Ben Swann who is a pro-liberty journalist that chronicled the Ron Paul media censorship.

What I find frustrating with an event such as this is the attitude of the school's principal is also taken by the police authority and the justice court of South Fayette. If true, is South Fayette stuck in the 60s where discriminations against anyone not mainstream are bullied, tormented and punished?

This is the same state in which this atrocity happened, with essentially no fanfare upon discovery: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal

Based on my reading of the situation, including who got charged with and convicted for what, two judges shut down a state juvenile facility in favor of a couple of new private ones, extorted payments from the people doing that (obviously the balance of bribery/extortion/collusion can be very hard to figure out), and then proceeded to make sure the facilities were stuffed full of "offenders":

"For example, Ciavarella sentenced children to extended stays in juvenile detention for offenses as minimal as mocking a principal on Myspace, trespassing in a vacant building, and shoplifting DVDs from Wal-mart."

I looked at the Myspace incident in detail, it was not criminal in the least.

NOTHING in this realm would surprise me coming out of that state, which I long ago crossed off as a place to step foot on.

Punish the meek, give power to wicked, seems legit.

And that's why I want stay the fuck away from America.

Well, at least away from that rather corrupt state, e.g. see my comment https://news.ycombinator.com/edit?id=7583226

By no means is all of America that corrupt. I'm reminder of Chris Christie, governor of corrupt New Jersey, saying that every day he gives thanks for the existence of Illinois and Louisiana, both substantially more corrupt than New Jersey.

My mother's from Louisiana, and corruption is one of her hottest political buttons; I sometimes think she takes it too far, but then again, I don't really know....

Apalling.

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