A Lower Merion family has set off a furor among students, parents, and civil liberties groups by alleging that Harriton High School officials used a webcam on a school-issued laptop to spy on their 15-year-old son at home.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court, the family said the school's assistant principal had confronted their son, told him he had "engaged in improper behavior in [his] home, and cited as evidence a photograph from the webcam embedded in [his] personal laptop issued by the school district."
The suit contends the Lower Merion School District, one of the most prosperous and highest-achieving in the state, had the ability to turn on students' webcams and illegally invade their privacy.
While declining to comment on the specifics of the suit, spokesman Douglas Young said the district was investigating. "We're taking it very seriously," he said last night.
The district's Apple MacBook laptops have a built-in webcam with a "security feature" that can snap a picture of the operator and the screen if the computer is reported lost or stolen, Young said.
But he said "the district would never utilize that security feature for any other reason." The district said that the security system was "deactivated" yesterday, and that it would review when the system had been used.
Widener University law professor Stephen Henderson said using a laptop camera for home surveillance would violate wiretap laws, even if done to catch a thief.
A statement on the district Web site said the lawsuit's allegations "are counter to everything that we stand for as a school and a community."
The suit says that in November, assistant principal Lynn Matsko called in sophomore Blake Robbins and told him that he had "engaged in improper behavior in his home," and cited as evidence a photograph from the webcam in his school-issued laptop.
Matsko later told Robbins' father, Michael, that the district "could remotely activate the webcam contained in a student's personal laptop . . . at any time it chose and to view and capture whatever images were in front of the webcam" without the knowledge or approval of the laptop's users, the suit says.
It does not say what improper activity Robbins was accused of or what, if any, discipline resulted. Reached at home yesterday, his mother, Holly, said she could not comment on advice of the family's lawyers.
Blake Robbins, answering the door at his home, said he, too, could not comment. With a mop of brown hair and clad in a black T-shirt and jeans, he smiled when told the suit had earned him a Wikipedia page and other Internet notoriety.
Mark Haltzman, a lawyer with the Trevose firm of Lamm Rubenstone, which represents the Robbins family, did not return calls seeking comment. Matsko's husband said the assistant principal could not comment.
Fueled with state grants, the Lower Merion district issued laptops to all 2,300 high school students, starting last school year at Harriton and later at Lower Merion High, to promote more "engaged and active learning and enhanced student achievement," Superintendent Christopher W. McGinley said in a statement.
McGinley and Lower Merion School Board President David Ebby did not respond to requests for comment.
Families in the 6,900-student district reacted with shock. Parent Candace Chacona said she was "flabbergasted" by the allegations.
"My first thought was that my daughter has her computer open almost around the clock in her bedroom. Has she been spied on?"
Victoria Zuzelo, a senior at Harriton, said she and other students had been told about the security feature, and knew the district had the right to search computer hard drives at school.
Some students had taken to covering webcams in school with paper because they thought they might be watched, she said. "But . . . they would never think the school would be watching them at home. I'm not sure who to believe, but I'm hoping it is not true because if it was, it would really be outrageous."
Lillie Coney, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy watchdog group in Washington, said she had not heard of any other case in which school officials were accused of monitoring student behavior at home via a computer. If the allegations are true, she said, "this is an outrageous invasion of individual privacy."
Witold J. Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, told the Associated Press: "School officials cannot, any more than police, enter into the home either electronically or physically without an invitation or a warrant."
Virginia DiMedio, who as the Lower Merion district's technology director until she retired last summer helped launch the laptop initiative, said yesterday: "If there was a report that a computer was stolen, the next time a person opened it up, it would take their picture and give us their IP [Internet protocol] address - the location of where it was coming from."
She said that the feature had been used several times to trace stolen laptops, but that there had been no discussion of using it to monitor students' behavior. "I can't imagine anyone in the district did anything other than track stolen computers," she said.
DiMedio said the district did not widely publicize the feature "for obvious reasons. It involved computer security, and that is all it was being used for."
She added: "People ask you all the time, 'Can you do this? Can you do this?' . . . But you have to be conscious of students' rights. I would not have walked into that swamp. . . . You want kids to use the technology. You want them to feel safe, to feel trusted."
The laptop initiative, she said, is "a wonderful program. There were kids in some of the poorer areas that had none of the resources that the other students had. That was what the initiative was for - to give kids a chance."
In a published policy statement, the district warns that laptop users "should not expect that files stored on district resources will be private," and says the network administrator "may review files and communication to . . . ensure that students are using the system responsibly."
27 comments:
If the shcools are able to spy on someone using the laptops with the webcam- it sounds an awful lot like the telescreens that watch you in '1984'....creepy. And if the schools were not spying on kids, it sounds like they are just a tiny step away from doing so- still creepy.
Yet another way Big Brother can make his way into your home and spy on its unsuspecting victims. This is very reminiscent of the CCTVs that keep the UK's citizens on constant alert. Could this be where we are headed? I'm sure anyone would feel extremely violated if someone could peek into their room at any given moment even if they were getting dressed! How different could this be from being a "peeping tom" and looking into someone's windows? It's not different at all. I just hope that the school district hasn't already destroyed the images that were captured by the camera. We'll just have to cross our fingers that there is proof of some sort.
I believe no student should be "spied on" while at home, or even at school. Instead of having these web cams they should just have the blocked websites like our computers, insuring that they are being used for the right reasons. Taking pictures of students at random while at their house is not okay. If police need a warrent to invade privacy like that, its not okay for schools to intrude personal space.
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.
Man, is the 1984 all over again!
Wow! This is just out right ridiculous you are violating students self privacy. Yes they should be able to turn on the active camera but only if it is reported or stolen. The school really has some nerve to try and get way to comfortable on trying to find some dirt with some students. What the school did was wrong and the feature should just be turned off, in the long run it will just harm the school with lawsuits and unwanted criticism. Overall the only thing is you are taking a risk with leaving kids with such powerful technology more than likely something will happen.
The laptops were used to improve the students education and give them the opportunity to enrich their studies. But if the allegations are true then the school board misused their authority by invading a student privacy. The school and it's officals have no right to take care of a situation outside of the campus unless authorized by the student or parent. If it is true it would be very outrageous and would make many wonder if this boy is the only one they had been spying on; hopefully it is false.
First, I wish we could have our own laptops to take home with us. Second, I think schools should be allowed to monitor their computers they're lending out. They pay the money for their kids to have better privileges so the students should know what they are getting themselves into.
Geeze, if reading 1984 wasn't enough, now this? It seems to me that more and more schools are becoming more like prisons than schools, where kids are to report, do work, and do exactly as told. What happened to the days where kids could find school enjoyable?
Back on subject, it's an obvious violation of personal privacy. Why would schools be watching students? Do they not already have teachers and cameras in the hallways? Big Brother here we come.
I love how Virginia DiMedio says that the purpose of the feature was for computer security. It really sounds like she is trying to cover up the real intent of the feature. It's plain to see that the district purposely used the feature to spy on the students because of the assistant principal. If the feature was only being used to catch a thief, then why did it take a pic of the student? HMMMMMM? All this paranoia starts to make me think if there are more districts like this one who are using technology to spy. It's a crazed world out there. It makes one think about going back to old-school days where technology wasn't used for creepy reasons. I'm keeping my computer shut for now on when I'm not using it!
This remind me of the book we're reading in english, 1984-where everyone's privacy is invaded and no one is guaranteed their individual rights. I know it seems abit of a stretch, but this case is a step towardthat direction. Some people would say its not a big deal, but how far do you let it go on and let it progress until it is a big deal? I think that the school has violated the privacy of a home and should be reckoned with accoringly.
I think this is so crazy. One, the students get their own laptops (so cool!) and two, the school is going way out of its legal boundaries by spying on the students. I think the idea of giving everyone an equal oppurtunity for enrichment at home is a great one but once the laptop leaves the school it becomes the students temporary property. The school has no right to open those webcams outside of school for any reason other than to investigate a stolen laptop. Each student deserves privacy in their home. It should become the parent's responsibility to monitor the child's behavior when at home, not the schools.
I find this completely inappropriate. What students do in their own homes is a private matter and school administrators are violating these student's right to such privacy.
Invading a student's privacy at home is crossing the line. I don't think any official athority has the right to do that. Teens don't even like it when their own parents invade their privacy. What makes school oficials think they have more right than the parents?
Invading a student's privacy at home is crossing the line. I don't think any official authority has the right to do something liek that. Teens don't even like it when their own parents invade their privacy. What makes any school official think they can invade student's privacy when their own parents don't even do that?
I find this so incredibly ridiculous. I can't believe this has seriously happened. If the police can't go into someone's home, even a underage student, without a warrant or consent, what makes anyone think that it is ok to spy on kids with laptops. There are so many levels wrong with this. Talk about being personally violated? I can see where their files shouldn’t be private but to look into their home life with a web camera is disgusting to me.
I think this is complete invasion of privacy. The school does not have the rights to do that to any of their students.
I think the school should have the security system removed from the computers to protect the student's privacy. It may be resourceful to track down stolen computers but if it is at the cost of the student's privacy then it's not neccessary. even if the school had been tipped off about the computer being stolen, they didn't have any right to confront the student on what he was doing in his home. they knew it wasn't stolen but for some reason they felt itwas there place to make a comment. What's the point of having laws that prevent the government from spying on people if the schools can? The smartest thing the school can do is to remove the security system immediately before more complaints arise along with more contreversy.
I'm pretty sure that mr. Perry and Mrs. Cross coordinated this article. This makes me super paranoid I hope the school district gets sued out thier butt and they have to shut down the school district because of lack of funds. have they never heard of privacy? This is GARBAGE
This in my opinion is a complete invasion of privacy. Its taking how students behave outside of school too far. A school can monitor a student's actions and behavior without illegally hacking into their computere and spying on you at home. THis article actually reminded me of Orwell's book 1984. Its scary to think that people can look in on you wihtout your knowledge. The court should rule in favor of the student and find th school guilty. Its ridiculous to monitor students without their knowledge at home. It violates your privacy and your feeling of security.
This story is so frightening to think about. I don't know what got into that assisant principal's head, but she obviously has no idea what she's doing. What made her believe she has the right to spy on students any time she deems it necessary? Like the article said, the web cam feature was to be used to photograph users of stolen computers, not to monitor whoever, whenever the school wanted. I can understand checking the activities being dome on the computer, but they have no right to spy on anyone especially while at home. I understand that these computers belong to the school, and they should have a right to monitor them, but that does not give them free range to spy on their students. I know that the family involved will get good compensation for everything that happened, and I hope that future administrators never try to repeat this encroachment on an individual's privacy.
this is very reminiscent of 1984 and the telescreens. I think its a complete invasion of the students privacy and if the schoiol district wanted to keep its property safe then maybe they shouldn't have picked such an expensive product. Also GPS tracking seems like it would work better than taking a photo.
This is ridiculous! This is a complete and total invasion of privacy whether or not the district ownes the laptop. The district should be punished for the multiple laws they have broken by taking a picture of this boy in his own home.
It's scary thinking that people someone can watch you every time you open a laptop, even if it is for safety reasons.
Who knows what to believe in this lawsuit, but if the District of Lower Merion was in fact spying on their students that is an obvious disregard for privacy. The technology in the laptops seem to be a good idea for catching thiefs, yet there would be no reason for the school district to observe students in their own homes.
What the school has done, monitoring the students @ home, is a serious violation of privacy. I understand the need to check the files saved on the hard drives, the laptops are property of the school so they have to make sure that the students are using the SCHOOL'S computer appropiately. The webcam however is too extreme. I understand that i does have some advantages such as taking a photo if the computer is stolen, but there are other ways to track down lost or stolen computers i.e gps chips inserted withing the computer itself. Either way, taking snapshots of students while they are at home is not only an invasion of privacy, its just plain creepy.
I think this is a major invasion of your privacy. I would hate the thought of the school spying on me every second of the day, if i had a school issued laptop. What i do at home is my private life. My laptop is open almost all the time whether im on it or not, so they could see everything. I really do think if they are going to give the kids school issued laptops that they need to give them they're space and get out of their lives.
This situation is plain creepy. Not only is it a huge, uncalled for, invasion of privacy, but also just kind of absurd. Although I wonder what precisely the inappropriate behavior that the school district spied on but on which they refused to further elaborate, but no matter what it was, it's quite awkward that someone in the school district was watching. It makes you wonder a few thugs, such as why they were watching, and what else might they have watched. School-issued, state-of-the-art technology, is not all that it is cracked up to be. 1984, anyone?
WOW!!! Can you say creepy! This is just down right outrageous. I can't believe that schools are trying to invade students privacy at home. This is an awful like the book 1984 that we are reading in english. Just down right creepy. They should be ashame of themselves.
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