One mom’s story about her child’s school principal taking his phone and using his face to unlock it to view a video allegedly saved on it has TikTok viewers in an uproar.
In a video posted to the platform that has drawn over 560,000 views as of Friday, small business owner and mother @keepingupwithamandaj says her son’s phone was taken from him because his school principal was trying to learn more about an incident that happened on campus.
She says she has always taught her children to call her when they are uncomfortable at school, and that the video would simply help her child’s principal get to the bottom of a fight that happened.
“My son happened to be one of the students that received the video, or whatever,” she says. “…Someone mentioned that my son had a copy of the video. When the fight happened, and when the principal was trying to get to the bottom of it, it was two weeks later, because when the fight first happened in the bathroom, students just broke it up, so no principal, no teachers were in there.”
When her son was called to the office, she says he told his principal that he wanted his mother to be called, which is when the administrator took matters into his own hands.
“So he calls my son to the office, and tells my son, ‘I heard you had the video, I want to see the video.'” she says. “My son said, ‘I want to call my mom.’ Now, my son did have the video, and had I been called on the phone and the principal told me what was going on, I would have said to my son, ‘OK, give the principal the video.’
But according to her, that’s not what happened.
“The principal grabbed my son’s phone, and it had a facial recognition lock on it, and he turned the phone around and held it to my son’s face to unlock it,” she says. “Then he went through the album and found the video.”
@keepingupwithamandaj #school #principal #momsoftiktok #kidsoftiktok ♬ original sound – keeping up with Amanda J
She then asks parents how they would feel, if it had been their child, and whether or not something like this was even legal to begin with.
“Is that even legal?” she asks. “Are they even allowed to do that? I know they’re on school property, so maybe so. Even if it is legal, how would you feel about that as a parent?”
Many viewers reacted to the video with disapproval of the school principal’s actions, writing that they would pursue legal action in her place.
“Cop here, we can’t even do that,” one commenter wrote. “Need a warrant. Get a lawyer.”
“I would have an attorney and been down at that office,” another said.
“Need a warrant for that,” another echoed. “Teach your kids to never unlock without a warrant. Even at the airport lol.”
According to the Law Office of Thomas C. Thomasian, “If an officer wants to go through the contents of your phone, they need a warrant to do so – that or your permission.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to @keepingupwithamandaj via Instagram direct message regarding the video.