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

I took the 8 x 16 photo paper out of the pack and placed it in the printer. I was always pleased with the quality of the Kodak printers. I sat back and pressed the print button, and watched as it began to swing left to right filling the page with bold vibrant colors, filling in the tones of sky, and clouds and grey. I looked at this photo so many times on my laptop, it seemed to always make me smile inside, for they say a picture speaks a thousand words, the volume of this photo rang clear and spoke truths of dreams and of the hope I needed in my life. All this a simple photo can do which is why I love photography. Photos can teleport you into private thoughts and experiences are brought to mind. Both the past and the future could be conjured up in a photo. By now the printer is cranking and I see the shape of her head and hair bleeding its colors on to the photo paper. Her eyes melt me again. I think to myself how can I be so wrong? What did I do? Is it because the breathing tube in my throat for weeks during my stay in the hospital seemed to have damaged my vocal cords?
Have my lungs and cords been disrupted so much whereby you can’t understand me when I say I love you? I can’t speak it as loud as I used to, but I do make an effort even hurting myself at times, both in voice and in spirit. For it’s the former man that I wish I was. Yet I’ve grown quiet because I think even if you do hear my words, and see my actions, they are cluttered in the storms of life and circumstances. And I don’t know if the pieces will ever be brought together again, and if even so… I don’t want suffrage on your part, or tears in your eyes. But if there is life in me, there is still an incredible amount of love within me…. With the intellect to execute the essence there of, even with my weak physicality. I do acquiesce kicking and screaming like an idiot. Yet it’s my right to do so.
The printer is finished and the photo has been rendered. I’m still in awe and wonder of you… I cry inside that you still hear my voice, as weak and feeble as it may be… I still speak…

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