03.02.10
School Laptops
PARENTCENTAL.CA
Reported the following story:
Schools switch off webcams allegedly snooping on students
February 19, 2010
LESLEY CIARULA TAYLOR
STAFF REPORTER
The webcams that officials could turn on remotely without students’ knowledge at a wealthy suburban Philadelphia school district have been turned off, the superintendent has said.
The announcement came hours after disclosure Thursday of a lawsuit filed by parents of the Lower Merion School District student that claimed the laptops handed out by the district were used to snoop on teenagers at home.
Some students, angry at news of the alleged spying, have taped over the laptop cameras and microphones.
Grade 10 student Tom Halperin described students as “pretty disgusted” and pointed out his class recently read 1984, the George Orwell classic that coined the term “Big Brother.”
“This is just bogus,” Halperin, 15, told The Associated Press as he left Harriton High School with his taped-up computer. “I just think it’s really despicable that they have the ability to just watch me all the time.”
The webcams would not be used again unless there were “express written notification to all students and family,” superintendent Dr. Christopher McGinley said in a statement.
The cameras, which the lawsuit said were remotely activated without students’ or parents’ knowledge, came with the Apple computers the school district gave all of its 1,800 students.
If a laptop vanished, the webcam was switched on remotely by the school district’s security and technology staff. “This feature has only been used for the limited purpose of locating a lost, stolen or missing laptop,” said McGinley.
Students only found out the webcams could be turned on remotely when a principal told a student they had a picture of him doing something wrong in his home, the lawsuit said.
“The school district has the ability to intercept images from that webcam of anyone or anything appearing in front of the camera at the time of activation,” the lawsuit claims.
“The school district has the ability to remotely activate the embedded webcam at any time.
“Many of the images captured may consist of minors and their parents or friends in compromising or embarrassing positions, including various stages of undress.”
It was only when an assistant principal at Harriton High School told Grade 10 student Blake Robbins she had a picture that proved he “was engaged in improper behaviour in his home” that anyone realized the school could peep into students’ home lives without them knowing, the lawsuit says.
Assistant principal Lindy Matsko “cited as evidence a photograph from the webcam embedded in” Robbins’ school-issued laptop, the lawsuit says.
Blake’s parents, Michael and Holly Robbins, filed the lawsuit Feb. 11 on behalf of all 1,800 students at Lower Merion’s schools. The lawsuit alleges the webcams violate the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of privacy, Pennsylvania common law, the U.S. Civil Rights Act, and a variety of other laws.
In his welcome to students, posted on the district website, McGinley speaks glowingly of the program to give every student their own laptop and create “an authentic, mobile, 21st century learning environment.”
The program “ensures that all students have 24/7 access to school-based resources.”
The Robbins lawsuit contends the district also had 24/7 access to the students “by the unauthorized, inappropriate and indiscriminate remote activation of a webcam.”
Serving the wealthy Main Line outside of Philadelphia, the Lower Merion School District “is one of only two districts in Pennsylvania to earn Moody’s highest bond rating,” information in McGinley’s biography says. Its teachers are among the highest paid in Pennsylvania and its students’ college-entrance scores are among the highest in the country, the information says.
Our spotlight on this issue:
Not only is this wrong, but certainly a violation of human rights. I can’t help to wonder why these school officials looked over the issue of the violation to begin with. There is no way you can turn on the webcam of a student without their knowledge, and just sit and watch and feel that you are justified. Also it very well might not be the student being watched as we read in the story. And so family and friends etc… have the intrusion of their privacy as well.
It is well to note that yes it would seem to be a good security measure for laptops that turn up missing to have this feature, but now look at the loss that has come in the wake of this lawsuit.
Should we be surprised by the technology? I say no, for it’s the people not the technology that went bad. Also the bad call of judgment in implementing the program to begin with. How could the thought that it would only be used if a system is missing be the only consideration? People like to watch people… Perverts love this kind of stuff and they love to watch little boys, and girls… Some want to watch neighbors and others in the community in private personal moments.
We need to be aware that while not all schools and school districts are alike. Yet parents really need to mount up and speak up about the controls and control mechanisms put in place by the school… I would hope that all of this was discussed by the PTA before giving the laptops to students no matter how good it may have sounded at the time. The option to know that your child could be spied on should have been a major concern at that meeting I would think.
Markeith D. Eley
