Lower Merion School District illegal wiretapping?

[raider.adam]

According to the filings in Blake J Robbins v Lower Merion School District (PA) et al, the laptops issued to high-school students in the well-heeled Philly suburb have webcams that can be covertly activated by the schools' administrators, who have used this facility to spy on students and even their families. The issue came to light when the Robbins's child was disciplined for "improper behavior in his home" and the Vice Principal used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence. The suit is a class action, brought on behalf of all students issued with these machines.

School used student laptop webcams to spy on them at school and home Boing Boing

If this is true, they are in serious trouble. Someone may be owning a school district.

[Sycamore]

Wow. This is beyond the pale.

[PhillyKev]

This sound fantastical and unbelievable. Is there a link to more info on this? What was the "improper behavior in the home" that the school thinks it has a right to regulate?

[Sycamore]

True. Why hasn't this made the local news?

[lankenau]

I think this kid has his college and first house paid for...

[Sailaway]

I am not a lawyer, but if true, then this is likely a criminal act as well, and I encourage aggressive prosecution of the administrators involved.

I expect the defense will be something to the effect that parents and children agreed to some kind of written or implied contract. But even under the wording of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the school district likely exceeded any authority in doing what they did.

A lawsuit will only cost the taxpayer money. Conviction of the administrators and loss of employment will help deter anyone else thinking of doing something so unbelievably asinine from trying something like this again.

[BluegrassCat]

The AP has now picked this story up.

The Associated Press: Suit: Pa. school spied on students via laptops

[seand]

Craziness.

[raider.adam]

This sound fantastical and unbelievable. Is there a link to more info on this? What was the "improper behavior in the home" that the school thinks it has a right to regulate?

The end of the article had a PDF of the court document. That was the only reason I posted it from that source since it seemed to have a reliable court document.

I agree, if it was just that website, I would have been skeptical too.

[ACG]

Now THIS deserves one of those, break into regular programing special reports! Seriously, this is insane. If I had to watch hours and days straight of the news going "yup, still snowing", this needs to be covered 1/2 as well.

[3rd&Brown]

Is this for real?

Is today April Fool's Day?

Was this in the Onion?

(Those are the first two things I remind myself to check when I read something so fantastical that it is almost too-unbelievable to be true).

If not, then HOLY bat ****. And what idiot decided this was okay to do at all, let alone in a school district where 40% of the parents are partners at white-glove Philadelphia law firms? Have they not heard the term "Philadelphia Lawyer" before?

Dorothy, you are not in Kansas anymore.

[cwd22]

My high school issued laptops as well, but we were all paranoid about being monitored after this happened so we'd cover up our webcams.

[caL]

Why school districts feel the need to give every student a laptop is beyond me. It's not a mark of achievement in an academic sense. But it does tell me they have more money than they know how to spend. Maybe I'm just old school.

[ACG]

I don't know, but isn't something like this a felony? They were able to see children and families at their most intimate. If I were to plant a webcam in my neighbor's apartment and watch her and her child on it, I would assume I would have been handcuffed, prep walked, and sitting in a cell right now.

I absolutely can see the legitimate use of security features such as web filter and keystroke monitoring... it is the school's property and they can deem what the students can and can not do with it... if they want unfiltered, unmonitored use of the computer they can go buy their own. But using the computer as a Trojan horse to video monitor the home and all the occupants has got to be a serious offense.

[cwd22]

Why school districts feel the need to give every student a laptop is beyond me. It's not a mark of achievement in an academic sense. But it does tell me they have more money than they know how to spend. Maybe I'm just old school.

The districts get grants from the State. They made some things simpler but teachers would come up with stupid projects just so that we would get some use out of the things. My district was one of the first in the country to distribute laptops to every student so we had school administrators from all over the place coming to Kutztown to watch us play tetris on our laptops.

[Voodoo]

The really sad thing is that the Lower Merion School District is one of the most highly regarded school districts in the state. Students consistently score in the top 2% statewide and more than 90% go on to higher education. This could be a crushing blow to the district.

[caL]

The districts get grants from the State. They made some things simpler but teachers would come up with stupid projects just so that we would get some use out of the things. My district was one of the first in the country to distribute laptops to every student so we had school administrators from all over the place coming to Kutztown to watch us play tetris on our laptops.

Good to know Harrisburg's so economically sound that they have money to fund this. Oh wait.

[MayfairMeat]

The lawsuit was filed in Federal court in Philadelphia.


Opening complaint:
http://craphound.com/robbins17.pdf

[Matthias]

Does that school teach Orwell's 1984? If so, do they realize that it is not supposed to be a 'how to' manual?

[Glenn Quagmire]

Remember the Army guy that was held in jail for the so called "sexual" picture of his niece, this case has to be a million times worst then that one. Somebody has to go to jail for this