Manteno Middle School student Paul Boron, 13, with his mother, Leah McNally, is charged with felony eavesdropping. Photo / Illinois Policy Institute
A teenage student from Illinois is being charged with felony eavesdropping after he admitted to recording himself speaking to two school administrators in a private conversation.
Manteno Middle School student Paul Boron, 13, made the recording earlier this year after being summoned to principal David Conrad's office to discuss his multiple absences from detention.
Vice-principal Nathan Short was also in attendance for the February 16 meeting, the Daily Mail reports.
Boron told independent government watchdog organisation Illinois Policy that he began recording audio on his cellphone as he made his way to the administration building.
Barely getting past the reception area of the school's secretary office, Boron said he began arguing with the two administrators while the door remained open to the hallway.
Following the heated conversation, Boron revealed that he had recorded the entire exchange, allegedly leading Conrad to inform the teenager that he was committing a felony.
The incident eventually led to Kankakee County Assistant State's Attorney Mark Laws to file charges against Boron two months later.
Court documents submitted by Laws show that on February 16 Boron "used a cellphone to surreptitiously record a private conversation between the minor and school officials without consent of all parties"'.
Boron is being prosecuted as a juvenile and is charged with one count of eavesdropping – a class 4 felony in Illinois.
A class 4 felony, the state's lowest felony designation, can include a prison sentence of between one and three years and a US$25,000 ($36,200) fine.
Boron, who lives with his mother and four siblings in Manteno, Illinois, an hour southwest of Chicago, says the local prosecutor is "going too far".
"If I do go to court and get wrongfully convicted, my whole life is ruined," Boron lamented.
Leah McNally, Boron's mother, agrees and is worried that a possible conviction could ruin his future.
"It blew my mind that they would take it that far … I want to see him be able to be happy and live up to his full potential in life, especially with the disability he has," she said. Boron is legally blind in his right eye.
The issue has raised concerns about the state's vague eavesdropping laws that some critics contend can be abused or misapplied.
Only 12 states require the consent of every party to a phone call or conversation in order to make the recording lawful.
In December 2014, Illinois lawmakers passed a bill making it a felony to surreptitiously record any "private conversation," defined as "oral communication between [two] or more persons" where at least one person has a "reasonable expectation" of privacy.
But questions pertaining to what constitutes a "reasonable" expectation of privacy, and where Illinois residents draw that line, still remain unanswered.
"The State's Attorney's Office does not get to only prosecute the laws we agree with. We are charged with enforcing the laws on the books as passed by the Legislature," State's Attorney Jim Rowe said in a statement.
"When law enforcement sends us a case for review and it meets the statutory requirements for charges and can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, we file it as we should. Concerns with this law should be addressed with the Legislature."