My Instructor Took My Phone And Began Taking Pictures Of What Was On It

Location: Oklahoma

So, I’m a college student for starters, and my instructor grabbed my phone, started taking pictures of what was on it, and waved it around in front of the class while accusing me of cheating. Is that even allowed?

This happened before an exam officially started on Saturday morning. Several students were still having trouble logging into the testing webpage, and some people hadn’t even arrived yet, and there’s usually a password that she gives out once everyone is settled to start testing, and we can’t start without it.

While we were waiting, I was reviewing study material on my phone at my desk. My instructor saw me looking at it, became visibly agitated, and suddenly grabbed the phone out of my hand very aggressively, even catching part of my hair in the process.

She then walked away from me holding my unlocked phone up in the air, announcing to the class that I was cheating and saying she would have to report me. I did attempt to show her that nothing had been started on my screen, I was just on the school homepage. She also started taking pictures of what was displayed on my phone with hers. I honestly don’t know exactly what she photographed besides the study material I had open, I would hope nothing else, but I’m a nurse and I receive messages from doctors pertaining to patients I work with throughout the day.

After all of that, she had me start the extra credit quiz and take the exam, it turns out we did not have a password to start this time. When I finished, I went to Student and Career Services to try to report the incident, but since it was Saturday there was nobody from administration available.

I’m already documenting everything formally, but I wanted outside opinions on this situation. Even if she suspected cheating, is an instructor actually allowed to physically take a student’s phone, access what’s on it, and publicly accuse them like that in front of the class? I would figure the accusation is allowed, but the accessing?