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posted by martyb on Monday July 02 2018, @04:07PM   Printer-friendly
from the what-did-they-say? dept.

Illinois prosecutors have charged a 13-year-old student with felony eavesdropping for recording his conversation with two school administrators. Should he be found guilty and sentenced, a conviction could land him a minimum of one year in prison. According to TechDirt:

The [Illinois] law forbids recordings without all parties' consent. It would seem that the school officials' refusal to discuss anything further once they were informed they were being recorded should have been enough. The conversation was ended, along with the recording. If they were concerned they said something they shouldn't have during the previous ten minutes, maybe should have restrained themselves during the argument, rather than ruin a 13-year-old's life with a bad law Illinois legislators refuse to rewrite. Given how often this law is used to protect the powerful, it's hardly surprising legislators haven't expressed a serious interest in fixing it.

Everyone from the administrators to the prosecutors and those in between had a lot of discretion available to stop the chain of events, but all chose not to stop it.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @02:12AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @02:12AM (#701690)

    The law could stop at simply rendering affected recordings inadmissible and still be effective. There is no need to ruin lives by also making the act a felony. The harshness of the penalty is a clear indication that those with power intended to craft the law to send a clear message to those without: one of fear. Regardless of the delinquency of this particular child, the punishment is disproportional to the offense and an unreasonable burden to his family. Any of us would feel the same if this were our child, hopefully even Frojack.

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  • (Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Tuesday July 03 2018, @07:01AM (2 children)

    by cubancigar11 (330) on Tuesday July 03 2018, @07:01AM (#701771) Homepage Journal

    It is not just felony, the minimum punishment is 1 year.

    • (Score: 2) by Entropy on Tuesday July 03 2018, @11:48AM

      by Entropy (4228) on Tuesday July 03 2018, @11:48AM (#701849)

      The minimum punishment is nothing.

      He's a kid, so the maximum punishment is probably nearly nothing.

    • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday July 04 2018, @06:44AM

      by krishnoid (1156) on Wednesday July 04 2018, @06:44AM (#702400)

      Plus the detention he didn't serve, you forgot that.