Has my school breached my privacy rights?

[Boquesha Sharice]

Long story short.. There were several people cheating on a French exam, and they want to find out who it is. So they went online to find our Twitter and Facebooks and any other social networking websites we use. And they have all been reading our tweets and sadly I never bothered with privacy settings on twitter. So I know that they are public and therefore anyone can read them BUT is my school wrong to try and find us online and stalk our twitters and facebook (I have strong privacy on there) because I believe that they have breached my right to privacy by doing so.. If we did it to them we would be in deep shit :/ Also I got into trouble for making my opinion and thoughts on what they did public surely I have the right to free speech and opinion as well but I think my school are forgetting this! SO ARE THEY IN THE WRONG? oh and I didn't cheat btw

[Curtis]

No. If you do not put privacy settings on any social networking site, it becomes public information. If you dont want it to be known, dont put it on the internet. Same with the police; any illegal activity posted can be used as evidence in a case.

[Jordee]

I don't think they are in the wrong.. It may depend on the school and where you are from.. But those sites are available to the public. You can get in trouble from cyber bullying someone on those sites, so why can't they look to see if you were publicly talking about cheating on them? If they hacked into your accounts, that would be different. But if all they did was look at your profiles, then yeah they probably have every right. And the problem with internet, is that yes, you do have the right to free speech, but if you are online bad mouthing the school system, they also have every right punish you.
Its messed up, but if you are going to talk about stuff going on in your school, do it in person.. The internet never deletes anything. Anything you say or do on the internet can be used against you one day..
Be careful out there on the web.. Its dangerous

EDIT:
Going off what Curtis said about anything illegal done on the internet can be used against them.. Just look at the Vancouver Stanley Cup riot last year. All those people involved who posted pictures of themselves and their friends doing things in the riot, or who posted status's about the stuff they've done are now being charged for it.. And all the evidence is basically coming from facebook.

[mildred f]

Both at school and on a job, your school/employer will check what you have written.

Freedom of speech is relative. So a teacher/employer may not agree with what you say. It would have consequences for you. Not sure "freedom of speech" is an accurate term anyhow.