US school district spied on students through webcams, court told

The article doesn't make it clear whether the school was acting on a picture the student had voluntarily taken, or if the school was activating the remote camera capability without the student's knowledge.

If it's the first case, i.e., if the student used the laptop of his own free will to take questionable pictures, and the school intercepted them, then I feel the school is acting appropriately.

The second possibility, i.e., that the school officials activated remote-monitoring capabilities and captured images without the student's knowledge or consent, is obviously wrong.

Bill Horne

-- (Filter QRM for direct replies)

"There are no mistakes in life, some people say It's true, sometimes you could see it that way" - Joan Osborne

A TV news station serving that area has the latest reports on its website: 6abc.com (WPVI-TV, Philadelphia).

A family claims the school had a picture of their son from the webcam, but the School District denies it.

The School District says the plan to use the cameras to track down lost/stolen laptops has been discontinued.

I did a search at the 6abc.com website, and here's a URL to simplify the process for others:

Bill Horne

-- (Filter QRM for direct replies)

"When she was twenty-one, she wore her mother's lace She said 'Forever' with a smile upon her face" - Mary Chapin Carpenter

Local news reports as of Wednesday morning, 2/24/10:

Parents from the school district are quoted as being opposed to the lawsuit and the circumstances in which it was filed.

At a school district meeting the district was not able to say too much:

A local columnist for the Inquirer:

In response to other posters, I believe the student's allegations -- what the administrator may have said to him and what documentation he may have offered -- have been not confirmed as fact. Rather, they are the student's own version of the events. News reported also noted that the parents waited three months after the alleged incident before filing a Federal lawsuit, and the parents did not notify local, state, or federal law enforcement officials about the incident.

Thursday, 2/25/10, Philadelphia Inquirer articles:

Contradictions in laptop case:

Family no stranger to legal disputes: Many schools hesitant with laptops: Are free laptops worth the cost?

On Tuesday, March 2 the Inqr reported:

Parents groups oppose class-action suit on laptops

A group of Lower Merion and Harriton High School parents will meet tonight to discuss ways to derail the possibility that a federal lawsuit over laptop spying could lead to a lengthy and expensive class- action case against their district. [Many parents in the school district feel a lawsuit is the wrong way to resolve the issue.]

For full article please see:

The system that Lower Merion school officials used to track lost and stolen laptops wound up secretly capturing thousands of images, including photographs of students in their homes, Web sites they visited, and excerpts of their online chats, says a new motion filed in a suit against the district.

The school district's attorney says their internal investigation so far has not found such usage.

U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (D., Pa.) introduced legislation to close what he said was a loophole in federal wiretap laws and prevent unauthorized monitoring. Specter recently held a hearing in Philadelphia on the issue. [It does not appear that the school district violated any laws, based on numerous comments issued by former prosecutors interviewed in past articles.]

"Many of us expect to be subject to certain kinds of video surveillance when we leave our homes and go out each day - at the ATM, at traffic lights, or in stores, for example," Specter, who is running for reelection, said on the floor of the Senate. "What we do not expect is to be under visual surveillance in our homes, in our bedrooms, and, most especially, we do not expect it for our children in our homes."

for full article please see: