SoylentNews

canopic jug [soylentnews.org] writes:

Illinois prosecutors have charged a 13-year-old student with felony eaves dropping for recording his conversation with two school administrators [techdirt.com]. The punishment is a minimum of one year in prison, once he is found guilty and sentenced.

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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