I can’t guarantee that this news story is accurate, but if so (and I assume that it is since a lawsuit has been filed), I am experiencing a rare moment of speechlessness.
One thing is certainly true; like many other public school systems, the Lower Merion school district in Pennsylvania issued 1800 laptops to its students to be used on site and off campus. Another certainty; these laptops had built in webcams. The yet-to-be proven allegation put forth in the class action lawsuit: school officials operated said webcams remotely, observing students and their families in the privacy of their homes and without their knowledge and consent.
The Toronto Star broke the story here.
The lawsuit against the school system states:
“On November 11, 2009, plaintiffs were for the first time informed of the above-mentioned capability and practice by the school district when Lindy Matsko (‘Matsko’), an assistant principal at Harriton High School, informed minor plaintiff that the school district was of the belief that minor plaintiff was engaged in improper behavior in his home, and cited as evidence a photograph from the webcam embedded in minor plaintiff’s personal laptop issued by the school district.
“Michael Robbins thereafter verified, through Ms. Matsko, that the school district in fact has the ability to remotely activate the webcam contained in a student’s personal laptop computer issued by the school district at any time it chose and to view and capture whatever images were in front of the webcam, all without the knowledge, permission or authorization of any persons then and there using the laptop computer.
“Additionally, by virtue of the fact that the webcam can be remotely activated at any time by the school district, the webcam will capture anything happening in the room in which the laptop computer is located, regardless of whether the student is sitting at the computer and using it.
“Defendants have never disclosed either to the plaintiffs or to the class members that the school district has the ability to capture webcam images from any location in which the personal laptop computer was kept.”
1984 anyone?
Posted on February 18th, 2010 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Rants and Musings
Would someone please explain to me how, in this famously litigious country where school districts designate thousands of dollars of their budgets each year to keep attorneys on retainer to handle the inevitable lawsuits, no one in this district who might be in a position to do so was able to convince the powers-that-be that this webcam business was a THE WORST IDEA, EVER?!? Let the head-rolling begin.
Nance,
As a long-time employee of a public school system and now a public university, I heartily agree. Was the attorney(s) asleep? Kept in the dark?
Am I correct in assuming that you too had missed this story? Frankly, I was stunned that the MSM hadn’t jumped all over it.
On another note: One of these days my day job will evaporate and I’ll have time to write rather than just point at things……
Yep, I’d missed the story, too. And, randomly , I think about the fact that taxes pay for those attorneys the school districts retain, so the public sues the school district and pays for its defense. Dumb is so expensive!
When you retire, you can write and I’ll do docent duty for a while. Some days I can’t think of a single intelligent thing to say.
I cannot believe that anyone in education has the time to spend snooping on students at home. The teachers and administrators I’ve worked with have been so over-whelmed with getting through their required duties that taking time to spy on the kids at home would leave them no time to sleep.
Sounds like the school found an inappropriate photo on the laptop – is that the 21st century version of drawing obscene pictures on the back page of your history text? The remote viewing sounds like it came out in response to the found picture….. proving that we can NEVER ask too many questions when presented with “a free lunch” (or laptop!).
a/b
This happened to a coworker of mine a number of years ago. My hubby and I were discussing how to best thwart the ability to remotely peep at folks and I think we decided on……good ol’ duct tape. Cheap little square of it over the viewer (we don’t use the things) and voila! heh heh