Partial phone number search?

Is a school able to take your phone away, search it, hold it for a number of days then charge you money for it?

• My school has a rule or something that if your texting in class, they will take your phone away and hold it for 5 days the first offense, and you have to pay $15 to get it back after the third day. 10 days for the second offense followed by a $30 fee to get it back. and then the third is like they hold it for 2 weeks and charge you like $60 to get it back. And on top of that they search your phone while they have it. Now are they really aloud to do this?? My phone vibrated in class, while i was not texting anybody, i always leave my phone on silent, but i guess my phone has a new feature where it doesn't go to silent unless you go through settings. so i got it taken away. I need my phone because my recruiter texts me for meetings and stuff on weekends. but they said they have to hold it for 5 days. not including weekends. and i get a $15 fee. again are they really able to do this???

• Answer:

  If you were told at the beginning of the year that this is what would happen, yes they can do it. It is very disruptive to a class to have a phone go off. Schools have found that unless they give strict punishment phones will continually go off. They are tired of hearing excuses as to why the phone rang in class. Tell your recruiter to call you. Sorry, that's life!