A Pennsylvania school is accused of a remarkably abusive intrusion into the lives of its students. Papers in Blake J Robbins v Lower Merion School District (PA) et al, state that the laptops given to high-school students were equipped with webcams that can be covertly activated by the schools’ administrators. The lawsuit claims that officials not only activated the surveillance capability but disciplined young Robbins for “improper behavior in his home.” The Vice Principal reportedly used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence.
If it is true that school officials used such computers to take pictures of students at home, it is worthy of an investigation by the state. We are losing what little privacy remains in our society without a whimper of objection or concern.
School officials insists that the webcam was only used on missing computers, here.
The school has admitted to having the surveillance capability added to the computers, here.
The allegations in the case represent the realization of the fears of civil libertarians over the increasing encroachment of schools into the lives of students — and the steady decline of privacy and free speech rights of students. Indeed, this was one of the primary objections of civil libertarians to the Sotomayor nomination, here. School officials appear emboldened (here) by a series of rulings that expand their powers, including (in my view) the wrongly decided ruling in Morse v. Frederick (the so-called Bong Hits for Jesus case), discussed here.
What is frightening is the thought of what type of citizens we are raising under the surveillance and draconian policies of these officials. Students are taught to live within a fishbowl and accept surveillance by the government.
Here is the lawsuit: Robbins
George has it right, as do Buddha, Dredd, lottakatz and puzzling.
To Buddha: “The fish rots from the head”, bears restating.
And to lottakatz: Your haiku hits it on the head – no pun intended.
I hate to keep using the phrase “tip of the iceberg”, but it fits.
puzzling,
From what I’ve read, the computers being monitored were MacBooks.
Was this a feature that had been marketed to schools by Apple?
http://www.philly.com/philly/business/technology/20100219_Remotely_accessing_a_laptop_is_fairly_easy.html
This is a test. Have I been banned?
In the Pennsylvania School Accused of Equipping Computer with Surveillance Devices and Spying on Students At Home post:
A Pennsylvania school is accused of an remarkably … SB:
A Pennsylvania school is accused of a remarkably …
Papers Blake J Robbins v Lower Merion School District (PA) et al, … SB:
Papers from Blake J Robbins v Lower Merion School District (PA) et al, …
School officials insists that the webcam … SB:
School officials insist that the webcam …
… what type of citizens were are raising … SB:
… what type of citizens we are raising …
… and accept surveillance of the government. SB:
… and accept surveillance by the government.
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Can’t post in Corrections.
These are extraordinary actions by the school. What is the name of this surveillance software, and what other schools purchase it? What are its real capabilities? Did this software allow administrators to also spy on employees?
Why hasn’t the government seized all non-student computers in this school and searched them for evidence of illegal wiretapping, production and dissemination of child pornography, illegal searches and web monitoring, and other invasions of privacy? It sounds also like the home computers of some administrators would be likely to have evidence on them since this school seemed well equipped for remote technology use. While nothing is done we can be sure that employees are actively destroying evidence. Outrageous.
Power corrupts … those in power … then they choose victims.
A nation becomes corrupt from the top down, or as BIL puts it, the fish rots from the head down.
Monkey see monkey do.
When Big Brother tortures and spies on the people, and extols the virtue of of so doing (e.g. Cheney), little brother is going to follow suit.
Now that’s an interesting CYA statement on the part of the school. Yep, figuratively speaking, somebody’s pants are on fire and it looks like that somebody is the school.
The school district has now admitted to using the software multiple times and only in response to a reported lost or stolen computer. They state that the Robbins computer was never reported lost or stolen. They deny ever using it on the Robbins computer and deny that any school official had any pictures of him in his room, or disciplined him for alleged behavior at home. Obviously someone is a big fat liar….and it sounds like the school. After all, the Robbins became aware of the remote camera capability somehow. See the Lower Merion School District most recent updates here:
http://www.lmsd.org/sections/news/default.php?m=0&t=today&p=lmsd_anno&id=1143
Having the FBI investigate potential unlawful surveillance is irony that calls for a haiku:
Exigent letters?
F B I spying rampant.
Fox’s guarding hens.
http://www.securityprivacyandthelaw.com/tags/exigent-letters/
“Incident of the Week: OIG Reports that the FBI Routinely Circumvented Electronic Communications Privacy Act ”
A bullet point: “The “concept of using exigent letter originated as a time-saving technique” in the wake of 2001 terror attack, but over the years the embedding of service provider analysts with the FBI “led to a culture in which exigent letters and other even less formal and equally inappropriate requests for information became the [FBI Communication Analysis Unit’s] accepted and customer method of conducting business.”
—
http://www.aclu.org/national-security/internal-report-finds-flagrant-national-security-letter-abuse-fbi
“WASHINGTON – A report released today by the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) on the FBI’s use of National Security Letters (NSLs) and so-called “exigent letters” reveals a systemic, widespread abuse of power. ”
—
George: “I agree that there are a multiplicity of problems at EVERY level of government. My point is that when our top leaders skirt the law and the Constitution, those who would justify such actions elsewhere in government find doing so a little easier and the public a little more tolerant of such behavior. ”
I’m with George on this. Yesterdays outer boundary becomes tomorrow’s threshold specially when those outer boundaries are reached and exceeded without accountability or cost to the bad actors. Repression is the one area of endeavor where the ‘trickle down’ theory works IMO.
I noted in this article the school issued a statement of being “supportive” of the student, not disciplining him. Good defense, I think. “We are trying to help our students by spying on them in their bedrooms.” (lol)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/20/AR2010022000679.html?hpid=moreheadlines
ah-hah! I found the behavior that the school official found inappropriate:
Blake Robbins told KYW-TV on Friday that a school official described him in his room and mistook a piece of candy for a pill.
“She described what I was doing,” he said. “She said she thought I had pills and said she thought that I was selling drugs.”
Robbins said he was holding a Mike and Ike candy, not pills.
Holly Robbins said a school official told her that she had a picture of Blake holding up what she thought were pills.
“It was an invasion of privacy; it was like we had a Peeping Tom in our house,” Holly Robbins told WPVI-TV. “I send my son to school to learn, not to be spied on.”
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_LAPTOPS_SPYING_ON_STUDENTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2010-02-20-04-58-11
I agree that there are a multiplicity of problems at EVERY level of government. My point is that when our top leaders skirt the law and the Constitution, those who would justify such actions elsewhere in government find doing so a little easier and the public a little more tolerant of such behavior.
I just want someone, somewhere — R, D, I, or whoever(!) — to show a little leadership and respect for the rule of law and the Constitution. My comment has ZIP to do with ideology.
Now that the FBI has stepped in to investigate illegal wiretapping on the part of the school, I hope a great number of criminal charges are filed. Spying on kids in their bedrooms is a truly sick and twisted way to “find lost laptops.”
@Center
“The fish rots from the head.” – Russian proverb
Local abuses have been an issue forever, true. All politics are indeed local. Where in the hierarchy of city, county, state or federal jurisdiction an abuse occurs does not change the fact that it is an abuse nor that abuse from higher up in the hierarchy will by its nature filter down into subservient levels as an exacerbating/aggravating factor when not directly causal.
Abuse of Power and Corruption are both systemic ills ergo they can and do impact the whole system.
I’ll bet this case will be resolved before trial. I don’t think the school district has a legal leg to stand on.
@ George: There is no justification for attributing this to “the federal government [trashing] the Constitution.” Local officials have been abusing their offices forever. Your comment is just ideology talking.
How sick, perverted, and disgusting.
When the federal government trashes the Constitution and justifies it through warped platitudes of “justice”, it tends to instill in other power-grabbers, in this case yet another overzealous school administrator, that it is okay to do whatever THEY think is right to enforce the law or statute or school policy. They do this in spite of the law, irrespective of the law. In this sense, their own warped judgment BECOMES the law.
What a bunch of idiots. It amazes me how misguided people can get.
Pa. school: Webcams used only on missing laptops
Student Blake Robbins and his parents filed the electronic-privacy suit came after an assistant principal at Harriton High School told him the camera had caught him doing something inappropriate at home. Michael Robbins, his father, confirmed with the educator that the school could activate the webcams remotely, the lawsuit said.
The affluent suburban district issues laptops to all students at its two high schools, Harriton and Lower Merion High School.
The suit did not indicate that Blake Robbins’s laptop had ever been reported lost or stolen. Neither the district nor family lawyer Mark Haltzman immediately returned phone messages Friday morning, and the family has declined to comment on the suit, which was filed Tuesday in federal court in Philadelphia.
http://www.bismarcktribune.com/news/national/article_200657fa-419d-5eb4-950d-4c81b2d6cb88.html
I think the school district has some serious issues to contend with and financing this is gonnnnaa be expensive. I hope the class does not settle but I am sure if the facts are as stated they would.