When Sarah Sims found out her daughter, a fourth grader at Ocean View Elementary School in Norfolk, Virginia, was being bullied in class, she reached out to administrators at the school.
After receiving no response from school officials, she decided to do her own investigative work to find out what was happening to her daughter. She put digital audio recorder in her daughter’s backpack, hoping to capture what was happening in the classroom. School officials found and confiscated the device, which in her daughter’s desk as it was recording the school day. Rather than contacting Sims, the school alerted the local police department.
Now, Sims has been charged with a felony — intercepting wire, electronic or oral communications — and with a misdemeanor — contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and could face up to five years in prison if convicted.
Virginia is a one-party consent state, meaning it is legal for someone to record others when the person recording is involved in the conversation or when one of the parties in the conversation has given prior consent.
Read more on this story from KTLA 5 News.
