Is This Justice? Charging an Eighth Grader with a Felony for “Hacking”
Most comments focus on whether that should be illegal, what the legal consequences should be, etc.These deserve a big discussion, all right, but I think it should be a different discussion. Because law should not be a replacement for better/friendlier/flexible channels of conduct, rather than a last resort when we do not think we have an other way to protect ourselves. I don't see how this could have been the case with the teacher.- He could discipline the student in many different ways, using his own authority- He could have treated the prank indifferently, thus showing that it failed its purpose to impress him and provoke a reaction- He could silently take practical measures to protect the privacy of the data on the laptop, which, in the very end, was all that matteredGetting Justice involved is a real ass move imo.