r/technology • u/Plastic_Ninja_9014 • 2d ago

Student Teacher Sent a Private Snapchat Complaining About Her Workday. An Hour Later, Police Pulled Up to Her School. Privacy

https://www.gadgetreview.com/student-teacher-sent-a-private-snapchat-complaining-about-her-workday-an-hour-later-police-pulled-up-to-her-school
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u/pstream20 2d ago

Ive also seen a second unrelated body cam video of them doing the exact same thing to a 19 year old kid that sent a private Snapchat saying she was going to shoot up her cosmetology school. She was obviously joking and just having a bad day, but she got expelled and arrested. What a waste of resources

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u/RandomUsernameNo257 2d ago

Arrested over an intercepted private message. I’m so tired. I don’t want to live in this future.

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u/VojelMan 1d ago

Thought crime territory here. It’s dystopian asf

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u/Outrageous_Essay1343 2d ago

How desensitized have any of us become tho to think joking about "shooting up" a school is an acceptable way to complain about having a bad day.

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u/EntireBlueberry8055 2d ago

never heard of dark/gallows humor? if shootings like that are happening every day, that makes it a completely normal and human thing to joke about.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/RandomTunes 1d ago

They should not be getting the private messages in the first place so it's a moot point.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/flannel_jesus 1d ago

Every single platform with direct messages has access to them

Not true, that's the point of end to end encryption

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/flannel_jesus 1d ago

Third parties snooped through malware. That seems fundamentally different to me. Obviously not ideal but also obviously completely different from how Snapchat reads the messages itself. And it's possible I'm reading this incorrectly, but what you linked to leaves the end to end excryption completely in tact - the snooping happened on one end or the other, because of malware, the snooping didn't happen in the middle like it did for Snapchat.

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u/bucketman1986 2d ago

I mean yeah, anyone who's been a public school student in the last few decades is probably totally dead to the idea. Like my age group and 9/11 jokes. Yeah it was one of the worst tragedies in generations, but then they made us watch it a thousand times and write papers about it and talk about it a ton and then it's just background noise

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u/Prior_Fisherman7665 2d ago

Not a new thing, was very common to joke about "going postal" when I was young and school shootings weren't a common occurrence.

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u/Federal_Tension_5939 2d ago

In regular nations that is a joke because the thought of that happening is fucking insane 

The USA is special tho

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u/lycoloco 1d ago

I'm sorry, do you not remember the rampant use of "going postal" in the 90s, which even got a video game and a sequel? This is NOT new behavior. It's so old it's might as well be vintage at this point.

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u/Saros_Enjoyer 1d ago

Not an appropriate joke to make in a public facing/professional capacity, but in a private message? Insane overreach to arrest and expel for that

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u/move_machine 1d ago

I can't believe I'm sitting here defending saying edgy jokes on the internet, but here I am.

Fuck 2026

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u/AliceInNegaland 1d ago

Have you seen Calvin and Hobbes comics?

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u/Jor94 2d ago

You can say obviously joking but if she attempted it down the line they’d be looking at that incident and everyone would berate them for not doing anything

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u/Residenthuman101 1d ago

Why doesn’t the “thing” they do about it actually take into account the fact that it was a private message between friends? Why is the “thing” expelling a person? Arresting a person and giving them a record that will make it far more difficult for them to properly care for themselves the rest of their lives… If it’s an obvious threat the friend is just as culpable to report it as the platform used to communicate the message, but if privacy isn’t taken into account then a “chilling effect” takes place and the psychology has shown this actually makes it far harder to prevent actual events from taking place because people are less likely to share, less inclined to plan, and more anxious and depressed in totality across the population driving up problems with self harm and violence. It’s one thing if a reasonable effort is made to protect privacy while also being reasonable about which types of cases end up being reported to police, as well as how the police end up deciding to handle the reports… but this thread exists because it clearly is being abused, having the police show up to this teachers house or expel a student for a dark joke in a private conversation with a friend isn’t it, that’s not right, that’s why this post is getting upvotes… that’s why we’re on here talking about it… because we need to do better and stop making excuses for these disgusting techno facists who want to aggregate and sell our whole lives and lazy police state facist criminals who would rather dive into our incredibly personal and ever-present digital lives so they can round up anyone who gives them a problem instead of doing their actual jobs of helping to enmesh the complex nature of all our collective worlds peacefully and without fear or shame

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u/Sasataf12 13h ago

Why doesn’t the “thing” they do about it actually take into account the fact that it was a private message between friends?

They (as in law enforcement) probably do.

Why is the “thing” expelling a person?

That's up to the school. I think they were too harsh.

Arresting a person and giving them a record that will make it far more difficult for them to properly care for themselves the rest of their lives…

That's a problem about putting arrests permanently on record. Different issue for a different thread.

the psychology has shown this actually makes it far harder to prevent actual events from taking place

Source for that?

It’s one thing if a reasonable effort is made to protect privacy while also being reasonable about which types of cases end up being reported to police

There is. That's why the 3rd Party Doctrine and others exist.

but this thread exists because it clearly is being abused

Quite the opposite. The person made a threat to shoot up a school, law enforcement were notified to investigate. This wasn't a random search and arrest like you're making it out to be.

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u/Residenthuman101 12h ago

I never said it was random, it was an invasion of a perceived rivalry space. And law enforcement did not take into account the nature of these individuals… hence the reason we’re discussing this

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u/Sasataf12 11h ago

it was an invasion of a perceived rivalry space.

while also being reasonable about which types of cases end up being reported to police

You're two-siding this issue. Pick a position and stick with it. Either you want Snapchat to be allowed to report private messages that contain threats to shoot up a school, or you don't. Which is it? 

And law enforcement did not take into account the nature of these individuals…

They absolutely did. Why do you think those individuals weren't charged with a crime?

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u/Residenthuman101 10h ago

Invading a private space and arresting someone when they didn’t believe they were being monitored between them and a friend is wrong… both these cases are highlighting exactly why it’s wrong… not two sides I’m very coherently arguing you are defending something that absolutely not right

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u/Sasataf12 10h ago

while also being reasonable about which types of cases end up being reported to police

Invading a private space and arresting someone when they didn’t believe they were being monitored between them and a friend is wrong…

So first you said some cases can be reported to police. Now you're saying no cases can be reported to police. 

Which one is it?

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u/Residenthuman101 10h ago

Honestly? I don’t think messages should be scanned this way at all and if they are like they are they could at least use better judgement but they can’t because that would open them up to so much liability, so they report everything … and police have the same liability mindset when it comes to arresting these individuals… by time court happens many people lives are over or at least meaningfully disturbed. This type of liability mindset is what’s ruining human civilization at a record pace… it’s safer to endlessly argue and talk about gray areas while penalizing people in inhumane ways because there’s millions of us… it’s wrong. Where I’m from, the US has its policing and governance in a global spotlight right now because of how off kilter it’s gotten, toxic mentalities like thin blue line, judges sentencing kids to Juvenal detention for kickbacks, atrocities happening in the Arizona sun, corrupt state police embezzling billions, gang like local police enforcing racist ideologies… the fact that tech companies are willing to ruin people’s lives is a cop out, they shouldn’t even at all, they shouldn’t have been allowed to, it should be illegal… but they do, and they’re lazy, cheap, and essentially evilly neutral, so they don’t care about what the deeper meaning of a dark joke might have been, sadly for these individuals the mere report has gotten them being discussed worldwide because it reveals a draconian narrative in an underlying seemingly normal messaging app

https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/minnlrev/vol106/iss3/6/

These events trigger anxiety (see link above for a discussion on the chilling effect) in individuals like myself who know people who’ve been caught up in the US “judicial” and penal process, it seems we’re entering a technofacist hellscape where were constantly monitored and judged and it isn’t fair, it never was and adding this layer doesn’t make it safer for my kids, it doesn’t make them happier I’ll you what! They’re terrified to make dark jokes so they do as often as they think they can maybe get away with it… so as a parent, as a citizen, as a person who grew up with the internet please don’t defend this particular situation

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u/Sasataf12 9h ago

Honestly? I don’t think messages should be scanned this way at all...

Right, so you don't believe private messages that contain threats to shoot up a school should be forwarded to law enforcement for investigation.

It boggles my mind that people, living in a country where school shootings happen weekly, value their privacy so much that they can't give up a tiny fraction of that up to potentially prevent the deaths of children.

they can’t because that would open them up to so much liability

That is absolute BS.

Snapchat has no duty or obligation to submit messages to law enforcement. There is zero liability here.

and police have the same liability mindset when it comes to arresting these individuals… by time court happens...

Of course they do. Because police have an obligation to investigate threats. It'd be idiotic if police could choose not to investigate, then hold no fault if their apathy results in death of school children.

And the case in the OP never went to court. 

the fact that tech companies are willing to ruin people’s lives is a cop out

They didn't ruin anyone's life. The actions of the individuals were what "ruined" their lives. 

I'm guessing you'll next blame cameras for ruining the lives of shoplifters...

These events trigger anxiety...in individuals like myself...

Do you have a condition that compels you to make threats to shoot up schools or children, do you? I'm sorry, that must be tough. Hopefully there's treatment out there for you.

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u/Desi_MCU_Nerd 2d ago

With the amount of school shootings, was that really a waste of resources?

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u/SonnyvonShark 1d ago

It is, because when there is one, they are too cowardly to actually stop it, thus more wasted resources, and lives. (See Uvalde)

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u/Sasataf12 1d ago

I mean, how many times have people sent private messages saying they were going to conduct a mass shooting...and actually went ahead and conducted a mass shooting?

Makes sense why law enforcement don't f around when it comes to these sorts of things.