PA School Spied On Students Via School-Issued Laptop Webcams

jargon82 writes "A Pennsylvania high school is using laptops they issued to students to spy on them in homes and outside of school. According to a class action filling the webcams and microphones in these laptops could be remotely activated by school officials, and have been used in this role. One student was accused of 'improper behavior in his home' and the school provided a photo taken via his laptop as proof."

Comments

Hmm

[LogarithmicSpiral]

Does anyone see some child porn charges coming here?

at the very least

[heffy]

School officials might avoid child porn charges if they prove they didn't see any lewd images, but I definitely see a lot of people getting fired.

Re:at the very least

[WCMI92]

First of all, you cannot prove that. Secondly, they knew the software was there, making them guilty of TRYING to produce child pornography.

Seriously. If they "happen" to have pictures of some kid "behaving improperly", they will definitely have pictures/movies of everything else that kid has been doing.

That is exactly what everyone who had a hand in setting this up, or who KNEW that this had been set up, should be charged with ASAP. Conspiracy to create child pornography, because they set up a situation almost CERTAIN TO PRODUCE IT!

People certainly have been charged with child porn or similar charges for a lot less, including activity that didn't actually involve a minor (ie: a cop pretending to be one). These monsters were ACTUALLY RECORDING VIDEO AND AUDIO OF CHILDREN WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT!

Re:at the very least

[Rary]

What you quoted from the lawsuit isn't really much different than what I quoted from the AP article. The lawsuit does, as the AP stated, allege that the webcams captured these compromising images. As you quoted, it is "averred", meaning "it is asserted as a fact of the case". Of course they haven't proven it. That's for the trial. But they are certainly alleging that it happened.

As to whether or not anyone saw those images, that is immaterial. It is likely those images were created, and that is all that is necessary for a crime to have been committed. You'll notice that, in cases where child pornography is found on someone's computer, no one ever asks whether it was proven that the individual looked at the material. Simply having it, or creating it, is enough.

convict them - then home monitor THEM!

[rcpitt]

Personally I hope those responsible for this invasion of privacy are subjected to home monitoring - by the whole internet. Strap a camera around their neck and make them wear it and broadcast continuously for at least 1 year.

Idiots!

Bad method of correction

[SirWhoopass]

Beautiful job by the lawyers in this case. They're the only winners. It is a class action where all students in the district are members of the class. Seeking liquidated damages, punitive damages, and attorney fees. Assuming they "win", then these same families will be able to vote themselves a new tax levy to pay for the damages awarded, plus the attorney fees of both sides.

On the face of it, the school screwed up royally. No doubt about it. But did anyone even try to work this out via another method? Did the school board know about this? Since they are probably parents in the district, my guess is that they did not know.

I think the board should fire the administration for cause. If they have to pay some lawyers to make that stick, so be it. It would still be less expensive than this class action.

Re:Why am I not surprised.

[CorporateSuit]

I have to agree. My daughter's elementary wants to press criminal charges against us for taking her on a 4-day trip to see Grandma on Thanksgiving. We notified the teacher and the school beforehand, got her classwork and homework, and had her turn it in the day she got back. As it turns out, 3 days would have been ok. Because it was 1 day more, I'm harboring a future-gang member and deserve to go to jail! The school officials here are completely insane.

Occams Razor will serve you well

[RapmasterT]

When the media reports a story that sounds utterly beyond the pale of sensibility, take a deep breath and exercise some skepticism.
I got $100 that says the next few days will see some "clarification" of this story that will make it seem significantly less reprehensible.
My bet is the kid used the webcam to take some photos that then ended up back at school.

Re:Why boingboing?

[Anonymous Coward]

I suspect it's because BoingBoing scooped everyone else on this one yesterday. There were blogs for pennsylvania city papers (like http://citypaper.net/blogs/clog/tag/big-brother/) that were citing BoingBoing as the source. BoingBoing didn't link to a news article, they linked to the court documentation. If you look at all of those links from Google, none of them have a timestamp earlier than the BoingBoing post either. I suspect this wasn't on the paper's radars until BB posted it in the first place.

Life Imitates Art

[sehlat]

Cory Doctorow's novel, "Little Brother" predicted exactly this happening in schools, where the school-issued laptops were used to monitor student behavior, websurfing, etc. etc.

I didn't think it would actually happen this soon, however.

vice principle should be fired for stupidity

[whoever57]

really, how intelligent do you have to be to realize that revealing to people that you spied on them at home is something that you should not do.

Waterfall

[GodfatherofSoul]

Funny how totalitarian practices by the government slowly trickle down to the local level; cops, school administrators, local government. No surprise at all.

Re:Waterfall

[Locke2005]

Funny how when I pointed out to the school district that their recording video and audio of my daughter on the school bus without her or her parents knowledge or consent was a violation of state and federal wiretap laws, their response was "It must be legal because everybody is doing it!" They even made her sit in the front seat and pointed the camera directly at her, meaning it was only videotaping the first 3 rows of the bus! I'm sure it is just a coincidence that she was the only black person on the bus.

Re:Tape

[Mistlefoot]

And jailed.

If even a single 14 year was viewed naked in the privacy of their own home by a covert camera laws will have been broken.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/28/webcam_coersion_suspect/

A life sentence is what this guy faced.........

Be interesting to see how much of this is hype and how much really happened.

Re:Tape

[Enderandrew]

You can do both.

For instance, OJ was tried under criminal charges for murder. He was found not-guilty because jurors said they flat-out didn't understand the DNA evidence.

Later, OJ was taken to court for civil charges in which the victim's families were awarded monetary damages.

Re:Why am I not surprised.

[djdavetrouble]

If you had simply called in sick, you'd be fine.

The problem with this is then you have to coach your child to lie also, when he/she is asked about it upon return to school, thereby putting you squarely in bad parenting territory.

This would not be an interrogation, more along the lines of:
"I hope you are feeling better, little Janey"
"Feeling better? I was visiting my grandma"
"So you weren't sick at all, I see"

and viola, the lie backfires.

Most teachers will ask this out of genuine concern, not looking for a lie at all.