One parent is suing a well-known secondary school principal for damages, as the school held on to the child’s mobile phone for three months. According to school rules, any student caught using a phone during school hours would have to turn it over for at least three months.
It was on March 21 that the boy met the principal and confessed that he had used an iPhone 7 during school hours on March 8. After that, the phone was confiscated and the SIM card returned along with a receipt saying that it could be recovered in three months.
In the evening of March 21, the parent wrote to the principal explaining the phone was his and he wanted to take it back. He also said that the three-month confiscation was “disproportionate to the offence” and that his son said he would not break the rules again.
But the principal did not reply, and so the parent went to court, claiming that confiscating the phone for such a long period of time amounted to denying his rights to his property. He requested for the court to have the school return the phone while the case was underway.
But the principal’s lawyer said his claim was “frivolous and vexatious”, and that both parent and son were aware of the rule banning the use of phones in school.
The district judge stated that the principal was following the rules, and that the parent was aware of said rule. If he had an issue with it, he “could have enrolled his son in another school”. He also added that returning the phone early would render the rule futile.
