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Lower Merion School's Report Says IT Dept. Did It, But Didn't Inhale

Posted by timothy on from the so-what's-a-few-snapshots-anyhow dept.

PSandusky writes "A report issued by the Lower Merion School District's chosen law firm blames the district's IT department for the laptop webcam spying scandal. In particular, the report mentions lax IT policies and record-keeping as major problems that enabled the spying. Despite thousands of e-mails and images to the contrary, the report also maintains that no proof exists that anyone in IT viewed images captured by the webcams."

30 of 232 comments (clear)

  1. Wow... by Em+Emalb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I sure hope those "IT Dept" folks have emails archived indicating the request to do this.

    Otherwise...wow. I feel bad for them.

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    1. Re:Wow... by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I sure hope those "IT Dept" folks have emails archived indicating the request to do this.

      Otherwise...wow. I feel bad for them.

      I don't feel bad for them at all. It is so clearly obvious to anyone with minimal common sense that this whole thing could go wrong in a variety of ways. If they didn't think there was anything wrong with what they were doing then they get what they deserve. If they didn't keep a paper trail to cover there asses then they've put themselves in a really bad position. Either way they should have seen some of this coming from day one.

    2. Re:Wow... by fava · · Score: 5, Informative

      The report was written by the law firm that is defending the school district. Consequently it is attempting to spin everything in the most favourable light to the school district. Any attempt to pin the fault on rogue individuals in the IT department might just be an attempt to minimize liability.

      I simply don't trust the report.

    3. Re:Wow... by eln · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Unless the IT department personnel have copies of email threads which include them vehemently opposing this policy, I have little sympathy for them. This sort of spying is highly unethical, and an IT department should, ideally, refuse to honor the request. Realistically, I can see people who depend on that job doing it, but I would expect them to do whatever they could to dissuade the school district from doing it first, and maybe anonymously whistleblowing to the local newspaper second. If all they can show is that they were "just following orders", that's not enough to absolve them.

    4. Re:Wow... by Enderandrew · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Didn't the principal suspend a kid for supposedly taking "drugs" at home, that turned out to be Mike N' Ikes?

      The principal was at the very least aware of images taken of students in their homes and had no problems with them at the time the suspension was issued.

      I don't claim to know the facts of the matter, but it sure looks like lies compounding on lies. I really hope the people in charge get nailed for this. If I was a parent with a student at that school, I'd be filing a lawsuit.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    5. Re:Wow... by Zerth · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Especially considering the email that said they thought it was like watching "a little LMSD soap opera,". While the statement could have been taken out of context("testing this is cool, this is like 'a little LMSD soap opera'"), it kind of implies they looked at something.

    6. Re:Wow... by Jeng · · Score: 4, Insightful

      How often does IT get to make moral decisions?

      School Administration "Hey, activate the anti-theft program on XXXXX due to non-payment."

      School IT "I'm sorry, I don't believe I'll do that because I don't trust your decision making abilities."

      School Administration "Bye Bye"

      --
      Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
    7. Re:Wow... by poetmatt · · Score: 4, Insightful

      it's kinda hard to say a kid might have done drugs and then later state you couldn't have possibly looked at the photos. It's contradictory for the defense. I'm guessing that Lower Marion doesn't want to accept that they are totally screwed.

    8. Re:Wow... by doas777 · · Score: 4, Informative
      I sympathise with them to a certain extent, but Mike Prebix has been caught on film making statements about how cool it was that he could use this software to observe students without them knowing.

      Additionally there is plenty of evidence that IT staff did view the images as is shown in their emails. the report concludes that "there was no evidence of spying" but acknowledges that there would be no way to obtain evidence that spying was or wasn't happening. there were numerous incidents where the software was engaged, but for no known reason, and several times when it was engaged but there is no record of who made the request, or in some cases, of who actually turned it on.

      it also doesn't lend credibility that they purged the entire LanRev TheftTracker database some months before this issue, destroying much of what would have been evidence in this case.

    9. Re:Wow... by kenj0418 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      At some places, you do your job and keep your mouth shut, or find somewhere else to work.

      If "do your job" involves surreptitiously photographing under-18 kids without their or their parents knowledge, then "find somewhere else to work" is the correct option.

    10. Re:Wow... by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Funny

      School IT: put a ticket in the cue

      Queue grammar Nazis in 5,4,3 ...

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    11. Re:Wow... by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Didn't the principal suspend a kid for supposedly taking "drugs" at home, that turned out to be Mike N' Ikes?

      It dosen't matter even if the student was smoking a joint or snorting a line of coke. It's still none of the school's damn business what students do outside of school, unless it was a school-sponsored function or they were scooped up by the cops or campus security for being truant, period.

      ...And the mods always string me up by my balls for saying this: Students don't need cell phones and laptops at high school. The computer labs and libraries are more than good enough.

    12. Re:Wow... by Platinumrat · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Paper trail or not, they're screwed. Problem is that the IT folk are still required to follow the laws of the land. In this case the law is no kiddie porn. I'm not in IT myself, but am an engineer and if management tells me to do something that is illegal, I am duty bound to to them so. Sometime management, hasn't thought it through and they realise the error, othertimes, well let's just say a quiet word to the legal dept, often sets them right. As professionals, the Law requires us to know what laws are applicable in the application of our daily jobs. Ignorance is not an excuse.

    13. Re:Wow... by Maestro4k · · Score: 4, Informative

      Unless the IT department personnel have copies of email threads which include them vehemently opposing this policy, I have little sympathy for them.

      Actually, they have pretty much the exact opposite. It turns out a student intern researched the LanRev software capabilities and was quite concerned about the potential for abuse, and sent an E-mail expressing their concerns to IT management. And of course the "adults" brushed off this student's concerns, and guess what? The student pretty much predicted the entire mess the school system's involved in now ahead of time, they should have listened to them.

    14. Re:Wow... by arekusu_ou · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Not to mention IT puts you in a position to hear and see alot of confidential things that your pay grade shouldn't. The field requires a certain level of professionalism that you keep things to yourself unless there's a good reason not to. It also helps to understand how upper management feels about rules, are the rules strict and they will follow through zero tolerance, or is it something they just say but don't want to know about breakages.

      In the end, just got to use best judgment and like others say, make sure YOU'RE not breaking any laws and papertrails are good.

    15. Re:Wow... by Mr.+Freeman · · Score: 4, Informative

      A previous article was posted here that mentioned the LED. Because the webcam is only taking a picture, not recording video, the light is only on for perhaps one second at a time. A lot of the students DID notice this but were told/assumed that it was "glitching out" and chalked it up to hardware malfunction. Apparently a few got paranoid and covered it with tape. (turns out they weren't actually paranoid at all)

      To a computer illiterate user a blinking light probably doesn't attract a large amount of attention.

      --
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  2. Lower Merion by operagost · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's Lower Merion.

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    Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
  3. ...Seriously? by Darkness404 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ok, really "Lax IT policies" and "record keeping"? How is that even an excuse? Yeah, if perhaps like 30 pictures were taken it could be blamed on that. But seriously? 58,000 pictures? There is more than lax IT policies. Yeah, perhaps someone might do it once to get a laugh, but no (sane) person is going to do it 58,000 times.

    How hard is it not to activate software unless the laptop has been stolen? It it isn't like its too hard to determine if it has been stolen or not...

    --
    Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    1. Re:...Seriously? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful
      The definition of chutzpah is saying this:

      Ballard Spahr admits that there is no way to determine how often the images were viewed, but says it found no evidence that the IT staff had viewed any of the images.

      when you got by acting on what you thought you saw in one of those images. Wow. Do they cut out that little part of the brain with the "do not lie" label when you become a lawyer?

  4. The gun killed him by gmuslera · · Score: 5, Funny

    put the gun in jail, we are innocent.

  5. So how did they see the kid eating candy? by LWATCDR · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Really how did they see the kid eating Mike and Ike's candy?
    And isn't a crime to spy even if you don't look at the data?

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    1. Re:So how did they see the kid eating candy? by zeroduck · · Score: 4, Interesting
      This is what I've heard (source):

      The report says Robbins turned in his laptop with a broken screen and was issued a loaner on Oct. 20, but school officials quickly moved to retrieve it due to outstanding insurance fees. So the tracking program was activated from Oct. 20 to Nov. 4 and captured 210 webcam photographs and 218 screen shots, the report said.

      So they knew who had the laptop (not missing). They gave it to him (not stolen). They didn't attempt to recover the laptop by using reasonable measures (asking him for it back, calling the parents). But some how, spying on him for 15 days, off campus, is reasonable for not paying a $50 fee?

  6. whitewash by hduff · · Score: 4, Informative

    The "independent" report was written by a law firm hired by the school system.

    The IT guy made forum posts talking about the "security" system.

    The school used the software to do more that locate and retrieve lost or stolen laptops with all this starting because one student was accused of dealing "drugs" (aka Mike & Ike candy) based on a captured image.

    This report is just posturing by adults who should know better but who have stupidly done something unethical and illegal.

    The adults involved should be subject to a "zero tolerance" interpretation of the law. They can make new friends in prison and learn a trade since they won't again be employed in education in their lifetime.

    --
    "I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
  7. Re:"No proof exists" and other weasel words by Chris+Burke · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It just makes me think of Bart Simpson:

    "I didn't do it.
    Nobody saw me do it.
    You can't prove anything."

    --

    The enemies of Democracy are
  8. As expected by wisnoskij · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It is the minions fault, of course no one in management would ever do anything amoral.

    --
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  9. Grain of Salt by kjs3 · · Score: 3, Informative

    To be clear, this was a report done by a law firm retained by the school district to "investigate" the situation. One shouldn't take it as conclusive or impartial.

  10. Re:"No proof exists" and other weasel words by rjamestaylor · · Score: 3, Funny

    I was told there would be no Latin on Slashdot... :)

    --
    -- @rjamestaylor on Ello
  11. It doesn't even make sense by Posting=!Working · · Score: 4, Insightful

    An assistant principal looked at images of a student in their home and punished the student for what they saw.

    I'll buy their excuse once the can explain how the I.T. department did the above. Explain how the assistant principal didn't know of the capability while punishing the student for a picture taken in the students home using this very capability.

    The capability was known and the invasion of privacy was just fine with the administration until the moment they got sued. If it weren't, the situation causing the lawsuit could never have happened in the first place.

    --
    This sentence no verb.
  12. Re:like Zuckerman, I dotn beleive in privacy anymo by D+Ninja · · Score: 3, Funny

    We do? ...or are you trying to tell us that you were one of the school district IT guys, so you know for sure?

  13. cost? by belmolis · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The monitoring software is a commercial product, isn't it? Anyone know how much it costs? If the cost is non-trivial, it seems likely that someone reasonably high up in the school administration had to approve the purchase and therefore knew what it was for.