§ 21-18-318 — Student electronic writings and other electronic communications; expectation of privacy

(a) No ownership rights to any electronic writing or other
electronic communication created by a student shall be conveyed,
transferred or otherwise affected solely as a result of the
writing or other communication being stored on an electronic
device paid for in whole or in part by a community college
within the state or transmitted or stored on a community
college's network.
(b) Students at a community college in the state shall
have an expectation of privacy in the electronic writings and
other electronic communications created by the student
regardless of whether the writing or other communication is
stored on an electronic device paid for in whole or in part by
the community college or transmitted or stored on the community
college's network. A community college shall not require a
student to waive or limit the student's expectation of privacy
specified under this subsection. This subsection shall not
apply to writings or other communications:
(i) Publicly disclosed, released or conveyed by the
student or otherwise made available for observation by the
student in such a manner that a person would not reasonably
expect the writing or other communication would remain
undisclosed to others;
(ii) Accessed by a community college in cases where
there is a technological requirement to support and maintain the
community college's electronic device or network. Writings or
other communications viewed during the technological support or
maintenance of the electronic device or network shall be limited
to only those writings or other communications required to
address the specific technical issue and shall not be used or
distributed to any other person or entity unless otherwise
mandated by federal or state law.
(c) The property rights and expectation of privacy
provided in subsections (a) and (b) of this section do not apply
to a writing or other communication created by a student who is
simultaneously employed by and enrolled at a community college
if the writing or other communication is created when the person
is acting in an official capacity as an employee of the
community college. Nothing in this subsection shall be
construed to diminish the property rights or expectation of
privacy of persons acting in the capacity of an employee of a
community college.
(d) Nothing in this section shall be construed to:
(i) Impose, by operation of law, or require a
community college to accept or prohibit a community college from
accepting any liability or responsibility for collecting,
maintaining, storing or otherwise recording writings and other
communications created by a student;
(ii) Require a community college to establish or
prohibit a community college from establishing standards on the
retention and destruction of student writings and other
communications.
(e) For purposes of this section, "student" means any
person currently enrolled full time or part time at a community
college in the state.