High School Sued For Spying On Students With Laptop Cameras

I applaud the actions of the student, one thing is the police state that has moved now into the school system and work force, but home that is another thing, they can take the lap tops and shove them where the sun doesn't shine.

That is how we can fight the system, but sadly most of us are just bending over and keep taking it.

Just to reiterate - the lawsuit is class action - all 1800 students who were issued the laptops are involved. Hopefully, this will be taken very seriously. However, what if this lawsuit does not favor the students? That suggests a whole new set of concerns...

Outstanding post! A s&f for bringing this discussion to all of us.

School sytems nationwide in the USA have outgrown their restraints.

Kids are being held accountable at school for their private (at home) participation in online forums. Kids are being spied on via cameras, microphones, gps and content from their own keyboards.

The public is being told and is accepting that this is a social norm all under the guise of keeping kids safe! Don't buy into it. I am the father of two adolescent girls that don't need the school system in their home to keep them safe. I am quite capable!

Tell your school governing body that their responsibility and jurisdiction stopps at the school exit, and does not start again until the student enters the building again.

Do not allow the school technology into your house. Do not allow the school computer to handshake with your home network/router. Purchase the technology yourself, and educate yourself enough to set it up and maintain it without help from the outside.

Know what your kids are doing, and discipline as appropriate, but defend to end their sanctuary in your home!

reply to post by ModernAcademia


From what I understood, that is indeed the case.

There was another thread on here about a boy suspended/expelled from school for having a gun in his car/truck off school property and the school saying they had the right to search student's property, even off school property.

Originally posted by ModernAcademia
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?

I am pretty sure there is off the shelf software that can do that already. The legality of this software may be questionable, because it either has a dual use, or because it is produced and sold outside jurisdictions that care.

-rrr

How can they not get arrested for child porn!?!
Think about it, what are a majority of those young men looking at ....porn perhaps....and if so are they perhaps doing something other then just watching...And if thats the case, is the school not looking at "children" that may be ...hmmm..."exposed" in some way. is this no different then watching child porn only in real time....?
I am rarely angered by what I read on this site, but this has struck a nerve that demands action!
This isn't just about catching kids doing something illegal...this is about perverted adults watching children..!
Not only should the principle be arrested immediatly, but the entire school board for authorizing the instilation of the remote access program to begin with.!

What if this kid was being watched while he was getting dressed? Or just dancing around naked for some odd reason?
Is that not Child porn?
Adults watching children in their homes and bedrooms and such.

This is a sick world.

I hope Alex Jones picks up on this, so more people can find out about it! George Noory would probably mention this too. It seems that Alex is busy today, with a plane crash story..

[edit on 18-2-2010 by (C2C)]

[edit on 18-2-2010 by (C2C)]

reply to post by LadySkadi


"That suggests a whole new set of concerns", it sure does! And that could be part of the plan. The judge and or jury could already be bought and paid for. It doesnt make sense that a principal of a school is dumb enough to think that he is not going to get caught if he uses a photo as evidence. It must have been planned.

[edit on 18-2-2010 by (C2C)]

That is just terrible. Who knows what those creepy administrators were doing. Shouldn't they have been smart enough to know that they would get caught?

Originally posted by tempus pictor
How can they not get arrested for child porn!?!
Think about it, what are a majority of those young men looking at ....porn perhaps....and if so are they perhaps doing something other then just watching...And if thats the case, is the school not looking at "children" that may be ...hmmm..."exposed" in some way. is this no different then watching child porn only in real time....?
I am rarely angered by what I read on this site, but this has struck a nerve that demands action!
This isn't just about catching kids doing something illegal...this is about perverted adults watching children..!
Not only should the principle be arrested immediatly, but the entire school board for authorizing the instilation of the remote access program to begin with.!

This was my first thought when reading it, but it's so vague, that it really could be other things like smoking cigs/pot, drinking alcohol, drugs, etc.

While I do think the kid was doing what you're suggesting, it doesn't mean that is the only thing, but most likely the case.

This school "administrator" is VERY lucky that this wasn't my kid as he would have to use his superior health insurance to have said laptop removed from his posterior!!!

If you or I, or anyone for that matter, had done anything like this, they would be arrested and jailed. I expect absolutely nothing less in this case. If the "government" cannot find it in their hearts to uphold the law, then I seriously advocate the parents of the students in this disctrict to take the law into their own hands and deal with these cretins as they see fit. In fact, it may becoming high time that all of us as CITIZENS take the law into our own hands and deal with these crime and corruption-ridden organizations!

reply to post by mikellmikell


Definitely install a clean OS, as suggested, I recommend ubuntu if you can. if you want a system that microsoft doesn't have any backdoors installed in, that is.

if you still want windows, get vista (annoying as heck, but asks you before it does anything) and get a good security program(I reccommend lightspeed or, better yet, avast) and definitely remove remote desktop.

Other than that, I wouldn't know what to do.

As an IT person this sickens me, that there weren't some ethics employed along the way to keep this from even happening in the first place. That being said unfortunately the case faces a classic move that happens all the time; when those kids took possession of the laptops they likely had to sign some kind of agreement about use, etc and probably buried down in the paragraphs that they no doubt did not read is a catch all clause that their activities may be monitored. This kind of broad clause is all too common in such documents and the vast majority of folks never bother to read the EULA, ToS or other such things but just click Accept or sign the paper and go about their business.

You know, teenagers undress in their rooms. They masturbate (sorry) in their rooms. They have sex in their rooms. Not to mention the parents on the couch.. How many stills where taken that no one knows about? What about video!?

Basically the school system thought it was alright for someone to have unlimited child voyeur porn..... 24 hours a day 7 days a week...

I'm surprised that the vice principal is still alive....

[edit on 18-2-2010 by DaMod]

reply to post by freedomataprice


Yep, was about to say this is Voyerism and Paeodophilia. No excuse to be spying on kids through remote access for whatever means, wether its a teacher or not.

Ha, school is so stupid, these kids should do what I did, drop out when yer 15, and become a celebrity bartender.

school sucks, just quit, who cares....LOL

I think the students should set their laptops facing a wall with a note on it that says very unkind things about the school and faculty.

that way every time they remote access one, all they see is a note saying to eat bleep and die.

Need more data before condemning the school. For example, what if it were this scenario:
1. School has remote admin software on all its laptops (this is not at all uncommon)
2. Student was VPN into school network, and their IDS, firewall, or otherwise network security monitors detected the student trying to hack into their servers or some other unauthorized access.
3. Upon detecting the unauthorized activity, they immediately determine what IP address the intrusion is coming from. Know full well the kid would just say "it wasn't me", "my brother did it", etc, they activate his webcam and take a snapshot which thus proves it was the student at the keyboard at the time of the intrusion.

Given the above scenario, would you still condemn the school?
I would like to believe it was something like this, because why in the world would school administration sit around after-hours or on weekends etc, watching all their students via webcam, and then making claims against them for something they saw them doing in their room or something? That is absurd, so I suspect it is something like the example scenario. I hope so anyhow!

I'm at a loss for words.

If that was my child, and if the "voyeurs" in question were not met with the most extreme of punishments and jail time, then I would see to it that they would be dead by the end of the week. Either by my hand or someone else's.

There is just no excuse for this at all. Just completely absurd and disgusting behavior. Only the most f*cked up countries in the entire world would ever accept this.

As already stated in this thread, teenagers and children do all sorts of things in the privacy of their home and rooms, just as adults. They undress, they maintain their bodies, sleep, even masturbate, etc. Some even bring the laptops into the bathroom. So for someone to be able to just legally "remotely access" it at any time.. is just completely f*cking disgusting. In any sane country, the court would jail the offenders for at least 5 years.

Does this mean I can patch into someone's webcam and spy on them, say.. my neighbors, because I'm "concerned"? It's not that hard.. I wonder if the courts would back me up, hrm?

Disgusting.

[edit on 18-2-2010 by SyphonX]