Harrington High School
NOTE: Story has been updated.
The FBI is investigating a suburban Philadelphia family’s claim that their children’s highschool used laptops to spy on them at home.
The Lower Merion School District provided 2,300 Apple laptops to it students in two high schools. Student Blake Robbins from Harrington High School found out he was being watched after Lindy Matsko, an assistant principal at Harriton High School, told him that school officials thought he had engaged in improper behavior at home.
“(Matsko) cited as evidence a photograph from the webcam embedded in minor plaintiff’s personal laptop issued by the school district,” a lawsuit drawn up by parents Michael and Holly Robbins states. The behavior was not specified in the suit, which did not make clear whether the family had seen any photographs captured by school officials.
Matsko later confirmed to Michael Robbins that the school had the ability to activate the webcams remotely, according to the suit.
The Robbinses are seeking class-action status against the district, claiming school officials have the ability to see them in compromising positions without their consent.
Lower Merion spokesman Doug Young could not immediately confirm whether it has the ability to activate the webcams remotely.
“We can categorically state that we are and have always been committed to protecting the privacy of our students,” he said.
UPDATE: The school has now admitted to activating some of the laptops:
Days after a student filed suit over the practice, Lower Merion officials acknowledged Friday that they remotely activated webcams 42 times in the past 14 months, but only to find missing student laptops. They insist they never did so to spy on students, as the student’s family claimed in the federal lawsuit.
Families were not informed of the possibility the webcams might be activated in their homes without their permission in the paperwork students sign when they get the computers, district spokesman Doug Young said.
“It’s clear what was in place was insufficient, and that’s unacceptable,” Young said.
The district has suspended the practice amid the lawsuit and the accompanying uproar from students, the community and privacy advocates. District officials hired outside counsel to review the past webcam activations and advise the district on related issues, Young said.
After hearing about the incident via news reports such as this one, the FBI has opened an investigation of the matter to see if whether Lower Merion School District officials broke any federal wiretap or computer-intrusion laws. Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman has announced that she may also investigate the matter.
Students are now taping the cameras and microphones on their laptops shut.
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Socialist? What are you talking about Sam? Sounds more like Bush era spying to me.
Why is “protecting the privacy of our students” even an issue? Since when does a high school even need to worry about the privacy of their students, especially at home?
Sounds to me like these administrators are a bunch of socialist control freaks.
Big Brother gone mad. Spooky huh? And to think this is only the beginning…….
Socialism sucks and so do socialists. People who think they are getting something for free from the Federal Government or even the State Government need their heads examined. The Government does not have anything it did not first take from the people, what the hell is wrong with you people!? The basis in law is anyone accepting a benefit from a benefactor must accept the benefactors dictations on how they can use that benefit. Listen to me very carefully, if you kept your money at HOME, you could have the best health care, the best educated kids, the best paved streets in the world because 95% of every dollar that goes into the Government disappears in the vast bureaucracy to pay for crap like this, and you think you’re getting something for free when 5 cents comes back to you.
“You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.” — Adrian Rogers, 1931
Whoa!
If the allegation is true, the Assistant Principal is in hot water and can surely be charged with violating the Student’s right to privacy.
As a former IT administrator in academia, I can tell you with certainty this technology exists. Although not covertly, the camera in a laptop can be “turned on” remotely. Remote access and control of the school’s laptop on loan to the student can be done with the proper administrative credentials.
What a breach of ethics!