School secretly photographed 1000s of students at home

[SpiceMan]

A suburban Philadelphia school district secretly captured thousands of images of students in their homes, sometimes as they slept or were partially undressed, according to documents filed in federal court.

 

Using a system to track lost or stolen laptops, officials from the Lower Merion School District also covertly surveilled students as they used their school-issued Macs, logging online chats and taking screenshots of websites they visited, according to the documents.

 

The allegations came to light in a lawsuit filed by the family of Blake Robbins, which argues that the LANrev software illegally invaded his privacy. The family first learned of the surveillance in November when an assistant principal confronted the 15-year-old high school sophomore with a picture of him that was taken by the tracking software.

 

The image, Robbins has said, showed him with a handful of Mike and Ike candies that the principal had mistaken for illegal pills.

 

Robbins' $1,000 laptop was not believed to be missing, so the theft-tracking software never should have been activated, his attorney has argued.

 

School officials told The Philadelphia Inquirer that the software was turned on because Robbins' family had failed to pay a $55 insurance fee to cover the laptop, so he was not authorized to take it home. They also say there is no evidence to indicate school employees used any of the images inappropriately.

 

Still, the district acknowledged that the software has been activated 42 times since September and an undisclosed number of times the previous year. They have yet to say how many students were photographed or monitored.

 

According to documents filed by the Robbins' attorney on Thursday, more than 400 images were secretly snapped of Blake, some while he was sleeping or partially undressed.

 

"Thousands of webcam pictures and screenshots have been taken of numerous other students in their homes, many of which never reported their laptops lost or missing," the filing added.

 

The motion went on to recite the email exchange between two district employees who administered the laptops.

 

Viewing the images was like watching "a little LMSD soap opera," one of them said, referring to the initials of the school district.

 

"I know, I love it!" technology coordinator Carol Cafiero replied.

 

Link

[Bangkoktraveler]

Big Brother went too far this time.

[Steve]

That HS (Lower Merion) is Kobe Bryant's alma mater. Its an upper middle class area. The school is clearly wrong and while I am also against a lot of public taping via CCTV and such, I do think there are places where I would advocate recording.

 

Coincidentally, I would advocate some taping of HS classes...with PTA approval. Especially in the inner city high schools. I would want it for a few reasons. One, there is so much crap that goes on in the classes from students but to a far lesser extent, teachers, that demands proof. Parents think little Johnny and Jane are being picked on by teachers while its the other way around. They are minors and while they do have rights, they are minors and with parental approval I think its good for a parent to view a synopsis of their child's classroom behavior and interaction.

 

I am not 100% sure but as far as I know there are no cctv's in the jail cells. Hallways and byways and general meeting areas, yes, but not in the individual cells. Drug use, rape, murder, etc. happens in these cells and I am shocked frankly that the jail cells themselves are not on camera. They are criminals and as such have given up some rights to privacy. I don't think there should be ANY aspect of jail life that is not under surveilence.

[shygye]

Maybe the school officials should be charged for producing child porn!

[TheCorinthian]

Repost.