High School Sued For Spying On Students With Laptop Cameras

High School Sued For Spying On Students With Laptop Cameras

www.businessinsider.com

A student at Harriton Senior High School in Philadelphia brought a class action suit against his school district after the school issued laptops to the students which could be remotely turned on by administrators. The filing alleges school administrators used the computers to spy on students.

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This is the vilest form of spying I have ever heard of. I never thought "respected" people of authority would stoop so low. This is an invasion of privacy beyond anything gone before us. These children were used as a conduit of the window into the homes that local governments have been denied through other legal channels. I am appalled. Do you remember what you did when you were a teenager? What you did in your private moments? And what about their families? I hope the people who authorized and enacted these peep shows are jailed for the remainder of their lives. Sickening.

Another news source states:

The issue came to light when the Robbins's child was disciplined for "improper behavior in his home" and the Vice Principal used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence.

www.businessinsider.com
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[edit on 18/2/10 by Rapacity]

The issue came to light when the Robbins's child was disciplined for "improper behavior in his home" and the Vice Principal used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence.

I don't understand the above part, can anyone clarify?

Did the student get penalized somehow for how he behaved IN HIS HOME?

I'm positive that that's not the case but I just don't get it.

As a school teacher, this really saddens me.

I can see the point of using webcams to monitor activity IN SCHOOL. We do have security cameras in a lot of schools, monitoring students. But not at home. What someone does in the privacy of their home is their own business.

The only possible reason I can see a justification for this.....were the students using the laptops at home, and perhaps visiting inappropriate websites? I would think you could find that information without a webcam, though; laptop history, etc.

Just another blow for public education everywhere.

Originally posted by ModernAcademia
Did the student get penalized somehow for how he behaved IN HIS HOME?

It's that unbelievable, isn't it? Yes, that is exactly what is alleged to have happened. The webcam was remotely activated to spy on this boy's activities whilst he was out of school and at home. A picture was taken of the young boy "acting inappropriately" while the laptop and he were in his own (family) home, away from school.

There is no reason to use webcams to spy on children while they are in school. Teachers are paid to monitor pupils but they should monitor them with physical presence, not while hidden in a canteen or behind a desk. If children are messing around within a classroom then the teacher should be physically present to see them messing around. If the teacher is not able to physically see his/her pupils messing around then where the hell is he/she; for he/she is certainly not in the classroom with the pupils she/he is supposed to teach.

[edit on 18/2/10 by Rapacity]

What bothers me, is not only the fact that they did this, it`s the fact that they do this without telling the parents, or getting permission to do this. Then to top it off, they try and act on it by using pictures they took using the web cam in this persons home. (nothing like setting yourself up for a big lawsuit, is there?)Do the people who run this school think they are above the law? Are they now working for the CIA, or FBI? Now they think that they can disipline your child for what the child did within your own home? That whole school staff should be fired and replaced within a few days.

reply to post by ModernAcademia


Apparently, they were spying on the kids and families at school AND at home..so this NAZI spying scumbag, (who incidentally should count his lucky stars it wasn't my child or home they'd spied on) was doing it to them at home as well, so it could be right.

Even the fact that he used a still image from the camera on the computer as EVIDENCE of whatever the hell this kid was supposed toi of done IN HIS OWN HOME, shows what a twit as well as a criminal this DH is.

If this doesn't attract absolute outrage from liberty groups in the US, then there's no hope for any of you.

reply to post by smyleegrl


I understand how you feel. I think it`s bad enough parents have to worry about keeping a roof over their heads and food on the table, also about the quality of education their children are getting. But now, they have to worry about the school using web cams in their own home just to keep an eye on the child? What is wrong with that picture? When did the school systems get this kind of power, and who gave them this power? THAT is the question.

so it IS true, I can't believe itttt

Students only found out about the snooping when a principal told a student they had a picture of him doing something wrong in his home, the suit says.
www.thestar.com...

What i'm wondering is how a school managed to have this spying technology in place? Did they use a retail available software product to do this or did a consulting company custom-write this software for the school specifically?

In other words, what other entities in involved in this?

What really bothers me about this is not that it was monitoring the kid outside of school, which is bad enough all on its own. The thing that really gets me is that they sent kids home with bugs to spy on the entire house. Who knows who was doing what in front of the computer. What if his 11 year old sister played with it at night while she was less than dressed and the school was taking pictures. What if I and my wife were doing something in front of the computer that the school decided to spy on. There are just too many details about this that seem really bad on the surface.

I don't see a problem of the school using the built in cameras when they provide them as long as the students are made aware of this monitoring and it only happens within the confines of the school.

However, secretly spying on students while they are in the privacy of their own homes or anywhere else is appalling.

[edit on 18-2-2010 by verylowfrequency]

I really don't have any words for this, at the moment.

Completely shocked that this [allegedly] happened.

How disgusting! This saddens and infuriates me to no end! This school should be wrung out as an example to others who would consider such an invasion of privacy, which is fundamental to our way of life! This is far from ok, these people who came up with this should be jailed. Period!

I think the story was on PBS on how this school gave the kids pcs and thier scores went up or something..

But they also showed the remote access wit the cameras on this show also.. I was wondering about that..

The show was on pbs like a week or 2 ago..

Here is the video I am talking about
Here

::EDIT::
Well not same school... But same process they do.. They show how these computer work.. Goto chapter 4 on the video..

[edit on 2/18/2010 by ThichHeaded]

Originally posted by verylowfrequency
I don't see a problem of the school using the built in cameras when they provide them as long as the students are made aware of this monitoring and it only happens withing the confines of the school.

However, secretly spying on students while they are in the privacy of their own homes or anywhere else is appalling.

Really? i would never accept a computer knowing i will be spied whenever they want, they don't own my personal space, i can do what i want as long as it doesn't break their rules, but they should not be able to spy on me, they may check that i don't use the computer for anything illegal, p2p etc, and another completely different thing is, what i do ~non computer/school related~ on my own time, say, i'm on break and chatting with my girlfriend or friends, do you want to be spied then? i don't get it, that's your personal life, nobody has a right to spy on you like that.

I just picked up a used netbook off ebay and the first thing I did was to put tape over the camera until I find out how to tell if it's being remote acessed. Anybody know what to look for?

You all need to wake-up. Schools have been punishing students for things that they do outside of school for years. The next time your child joins a school club or goes out for a sport, demand to see all of the paperwork that accompanies this. You will usually find some kind of "conduct contract". That contract is considered in effect 24-7 by the school. I know of two cases of 18 year old Seniors being suspended for smoking off school property (you can smoke legally at 18 in Pennsylvania). I know of several more who were suspended for drinking beer during a non-school trip to Germany, during the summer. A teacher who was in the group turned them in to the school when classes resumed.

Even if the student hasn't signed a "conduct contract" the schools will not hesitate to involve the Children and Youth authorities. A few years ago I spent part of the Summer teaching my nephew how to shoot a .22 target rifle. When he went back to school (9th grade) he had to write one of those "What I did During the Summer" papers. He mentioned learning how to shoot in the paper. A few days after this the CYA people came knocking on my Sister's door, demanding to see how their guns were stored. When my Sister told them that there were no guns in her house, they handed her a copy of my Nephew's paper. His English teacher faxed a copy of the paper to CYA along with her concerns about my Nephew's safety in a house loaded with guns. When my Sister told them that they were my guns, they showed up on my doorstep threatening to get a Court Order preventing me from having anything to do with my Sister's kids. I told them to get a warrant, which they did. They came back with a Cop who just happened to be a friend of mine. I showed him how I store my guns, while they waited on the porch because I wouldn't let them in my house. Two weeks after all of this, my Nephew tries out for and makes the School's Rifle Team. They shoot .22 target rifles, the same as I taught my Nephew how to shoot. He was shooting the rifle that my Father got me when I made the team in 9th grade.

My wife is a teacher (Jr, High Science). She has to attend these continuing education classes both during the school year and during the Summer breaks. If she doesn't attend, she can lose her teaching certificate. In these classes they are taught that the Parents do not know how to raise their children. Only the teacher's and the schools acting as Advocates for the Child know what's best. My son is only two years old and we have agreed that he will be home schooled or cyber schooled.

reply to post by JIMC5499


Well, that is your wonderful government for you. Remember, it`s the government that sets the education rules, and how and what a teacher must teach those students. Nice....huh? And people don`t believe that the government wants to control all of us. Yea.......riiiiiight.

Originally posted by mikellmikell
I just picked up a used netbook off ebay and the first thing I did was to put tape over the camera until I find out how to tell if it's being remote acessed. Anybody know what to look for?

I don't know for sure, but if you simply installed a clean version of the OS you wish to use (Win7, Linux, etc) that will overwrite anything that is currently on the laptop. That's what I would do.



ed: sp

[edit on 18-2-2010 by LadySkadi]

Wait a minute... Isn't this fiasco the most blatant invasion of privacy? Isn't it espionage? And if this is happening to kids at school, is it far from the possibility that numerous corporations could be doing the same thing with company supplied laptops as well? And for what purpose?

At this point it might be wise to have a professional inspect the software on your company laptop. After all, the cameras are triggered remotely, without your knowledge or consent. Nothing opens the door to blackmail quite like this.