Staff Blog
Breaking: Lower Merion School District admits it’s used webcam “security feature” more than once
I just got off the phone with Doug Young, the spokesperson for Lower Merion School District. (If you haven't been keeping up on this totally insane story, get caught up here and here.) The gist is this: Lower Merion student Blake Robbins filed a class action-suit against the district for allegedly spying on him via a webcam, which was attached to one of the school's laptops that they allow students to take home. According to Robbins and his lawyers, they became aware of this when assistant principal Lindy Matsko "informed [Robbins] that the school district was of the belief that [Robbins] was engaged in improper behavior in his home, and cited as evidence a photograph from the webcam embedded in [Robbins'] personal laptop issued by the school district."
Yesterday, the district issued a statement claiming that the laptops contain a security feature that is utilized only when a laptop is reported stolen or missing. Here's how it works, apparently: It takes a still image of the laptop's operator and the operator's screen, and, the district swears to God, that's it.
OK, so back to my interview with Young, in which he admits that the school district has used the webcam "security feature" more than once, and that they're not alone in doing so:
City Paper: Has the school district used this security feature before?
Doug Young: Yes, a handful of times. We only used it when a laptop was reported stolen, lost or missing.
CP: Did Blake Robbins steal the laptop?
DY: I can't refer to the specifics of the case, but I can say that the feature would not be activated unless it was reported stolen. A student or family member would have to report that it was stolen for us to use it.
CP: Why not just use an IP address to find the laptop?
DY: That's a good question, I don't know why. I'll have to get back to you about that. I can say that the software feature isn't just utilized in this school district. It's utilized by other school districts and organizations.
CP: Which school districts?
DY: I'll have to get back to you on that.
CP: Why use this feature, considering its potential for abuse?
DY: There's no question that the district had a responsibility to clearly indicate what the feature was and how it would be utilized to the students and parents. That wasn't done, and that was a mistake. We take the situation very seriously. The safety and privacy of students is our top priority. We recognize the concerns that are out there, and we need to conduct a full review of the policies, procedures and process that made this happen. That being said, we intend to defend ourselves vigorously and intend to win.
CP: Does the district plan to use the feature in the future?
DY: It's been disabled, and we wouldn't use the feature in the future unless parents and students were first made aware.
CP: Are the people who are responsible for using this feature being terminated?
DY: I can't speak to that.
This story made http://detentionslip.org ! Check it out for all the crazy haedlines from our schools.
The people who made the decision to incorporate this feature and subsequently use on school provided laptops to spy on students, are as guilty as any peeping tom, burglar or pervert of child pornography. They need fired and prosecuted as insurance that no other district will ever attempt this subversive maneuver against those citizens who pay their salaries.
Maybe the more specific details will be released later. What if this kid is just being a jerk?
The link I gave isn’t my website…just a blog I read…catch up on all the rest of Lower Merion School District BIG PROBLEMS …EPA, Racism, another date in Baylson’s Court on Monday @ 4 p.m…it’s all good..fire them all and take back Savedoff’s pension – he started this..look into McGinley’s days at other districts….
So what if the kid is being a jerk.
Are you saying that if the kids a jerk that give the school the right to spy on him and his parents and family in his own home.
The ability the school had to monitor the webcams was being kept secret and only came out after the 1 boy was busted for something (someone from the same school says it was smoking pot in his room…but this is the web so take that with a grain of salt)
First I would like to point out it is NOT the schools job, nor is it in the schools power to spy on students at home.
Second What are the chances that they just so happen to look in on his webcam when he was doing whatever. How many other webcam were being MONITORED.
Im sure that NONE of the people monitoring the webcams EVER happen to see some of those cute little high school girls getting undressed or even having sex.
After all that would be illegal and we know the school would never over step its bounds.
I say an investigation by the FBI is in order here including a forensic scan of all of the computers involved to see if there are any pictures of any of these students on them in stages of undress or worse.
And if the FBI finds any the people responsible for those pics and the people responsible for setting up the system that allowed this to happen be Punished
1. Fines
2. Jail and/or Prison time
3. Be listed on the Sexual Offenders Registry (if peeing in public is enough to land you on the list this sure as heck is too)
4 The School Board should be SUED
Come on people! Read between the lines. The kid lied to his parents. He told the district the laptop was stolen and when he got in trouble he told his parents he never said that! They must have activated the security feature and saw him sitting in front of it and that is why he was hauled in to the vp – because they had proof that he was still in possession of his “stolen” laptop!
Ummm, Jim – before you sound off maybe you should know what is going on? The school board is already listed as defendants in the filed lawsuit.
Amy, numerous other students who were interviewed reported the webcam activation LED on their laptops went on randomly. I hope you don’t want to be a lawyer when you grow up, although you could be a republican judge!
The school told the kids the green light was just a “glitch”- They have continually lied about this story since it broke and have had to come back and say, we were wrong.
We do not spy on kids
well unless they stole the lap top
this is the only incident
well except the 41 other times we did it
The webcam is automatic
well except the software we purposely installed for this ONE purpose
the Asst Principal did nothing wrong and never took this photo.
well she was just trying to help this family out…
Guess what, it’s not the schools place to track down criminals. If they suspected that a laptop was stolen they needed to file a police report and let the police go through proper channels to obtain a search warrant and then they could activate the security feature.
And he wasn’t smoking pot, he was eating mike and ikes candy and the asst principal thought he was taking pills.
How long did they know they could do this? How many teachers and admins logged on to watch these kids like cheap entertainment? How many teacher room conversations were going on about these kids without them knowing they were being spied on? What about charges for watching these kids in their own bedrooms? If any of these kids were getting dressed and/or undressed in their own rooms would this fall under child pornopraghy?
[...] High assistant principal get her hands on a photo of Blake eating candy, or whatever? Also, as Holly reported yesterday, the district has done this before, though how often remains unclear. From the NBC story: If the [...]
Informing the parents might have allowed the parents to put protections in place (no computers in the bedroom, tape over the webcam), but no parent can possibly consent to the school filming their child covertly in the privacy of their bedrooms. That would the parents subject to prosecution as well, not exonerate the school district.
The activities of the kid are irrelevant. What ever he said or did is irrelevant, the school wronged him by taking a picture of him in his bedroom.
The school has wronged all of the students by setting up covert surveillance in every child’s computer, whether it was activated or not.
The law, and the courts, need to show very clearly that covert surveillance by the school of minors at home is not ok. If the courts do not do this, then they will have handed a mighty set of legal keys to any pedophile who is not yet identified as such to covertly spy on children in bedrooms.
[...] mansion, doesn’t like to pay the power bill RELATED: So, um, did the kid make it up? RELATED: Breaking: Lower Merion School District admits it’s used Webcam “security feature” more than once Tags: bronx is 339, daniel ackerman, digital nation, douglas young, lower merion school district [...]
From personal experience being previously victimized (in a similar fashion) by the government for being on a political hit list, I find this story to be long overdue and welcome. This happens frequently, you only heard about it because they got caught- now they’re in damage control mode. They got caught because they made the mistake of thinking they had so much authority they could actually bring note to what the boy was doing in his bedroom – that’s a lot of nerve and perceived authority. They do it both for control and entertainment. The cable companies and government give them the legal means and the tools (thank you Patriot Act). Not many people know how deeply entrenched this behavior is- I do; the technology also goes beyond just a camera in a Mac. We live in a country where to get spied on, you don’t have to be a criminal, you just have to satisfy their control/entertainment desires. This case is just one blip on the radar screen that got noticed. And it will get worse, as our society becomes more dumbed- down and complacent, the behavior will likewise escalate. When you watch your cable TV, do you ever get the feeling your being watched? The technology is there and being grossly abused.