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
Experts say school could track missing laptops less intrusively
While pledging to cooperate with any criminal probe, lawyers for the district also appeared in court for the first time Monday in the civil case, negotiating an agreement aimed at preserving computer evidence. The district agreed not to destroy any evidence that might be found on its servers or on the nearly 2,300 laptops issued to students at its two high schools.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-02-22-missing-laptops_N.htm
Opinion: Big Brother Should Be Expelled From Pennsylvania School
When Patrick Kaiser tried to pull this one, it didn’t fly. The Oneida, NY landlord set up secret cameras to watch his tenants have sex. Kaiser, 49, got two to six years in state prison when he was convicted of unlawful surveillance in 2007.
Gee, what’s the big deal? It was his property.
Sure, but the court saw through that argument. He wasn’t monitoring his property, he was monitoring other human beings — without their knowledge or consent. The same is true with what Harriton High officials did to their students.
http://www.parentdish.com/2010/02/22/opinion-big-brother-should-be-expelled-from-pennsylvania-school/?icid=main|main|dl4|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.parentdish.com%2F2010%2F02%2F22%2Fopinion-big-brother-should-be-expelled-from-pennsylvania-school%2F
I am pleased that this story is getting so much press attention.
A much more detailed look at the capabilities of the software and the technology involved is available here.
One part of the story that calls out for attention is that students have been complaining of blinking webcam lights on their laptops for years. The school stated that this was a bug with the units. Some students even covered the camera up with tape, thinking that the IT department was spying on them.
Another feature was the ability to turn on the remote microphone (and turn it up if it had been turned down), and the student would literally have no way to know that their conversations could be remotely monitored.
I would speculate that systemic screen and video captures were done on hundreds to thousands of laptops across several years. I would be very surprised if the production of child pornography was not a core motive for this crime.
Let us hope that this case becomes widely known and results in harder questions being asked about routine government collection of email, texting, web browsing, blog posting, and other online activities.
Blouise,
Your quote “Thus sayeth the King” is perfect for the school district where I live! They are so powerful that they flagrantly disobey all laws. I had thought it was unique to my town, but guess not!
Anonymously Yours
Blouise,
O.J. gone Kato all alone.
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Thunk!! … right into the air conditioner …. or was it an earthquake??
That boy gave one of the best performances I’ve ever seen.
I watched every minute of that trial and my two young grandchildren, who were living with me at the time, used to play “Marsha Clark and Johnny Cochran” the way other children played superhero roles. One day the youngest would be Johnny and the oldest, Marsh and the next day they’s switch. Now eighteen and nineteen years old, they still talk about their early days in my livingroom courtroom playing Clark and Cochran.
I keep telling their parents to be grateful they were born after the Watergate Hearings.
Simone Benedict
At several blogs, I’ve had teachers and school administrators make the following statements:
1. The U.S. Constitution only applies to the government
2. Public schools are not the government
3. Students have no rights at public schools
Where do they come up with this stuff? They started teaching it to my kids in first grade. I was labeled an ‘anti-authority’ parent by the schools because I told my kids not to believe everything their teachers told them. They can try to drive me off a cliff. I’ll be kicking and screaming all the way.
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I know exactly what you mean and join you in a sense of outrage. Here, in the state of Ohio, public school systems enjoy, by law, the status of (to quote a lawyer friend of mine), “Thus Sayeth the King”. Whatever the School Board says … goes. In the thirty years I’ve lived in this town not one of the School Board members was accomplished enough to hold such power … and I knew/know most of them quite well.
How can a school claim that anything a student does at his home is something that the school can discipline them for? I hope the parents collect a very large check from the District, but I also hope the administrators responsible face charges.
Turn your Mac into a remote activated, motion sensitive security camera!
http://www.leopardtricks.com/leopard/turn-your-mac-into-a-remote-activated-motion-sensitive-security-camera
I think it’s a great idea, if only these systems could be installed in the laptops of our politicians and money movers and shakers.
What on earth do they want to spy on students for…. before they know it they’ll be busted for posession of child pornography
1. The U.S. Constitution only applies to the government
2. Public schools are not the government
3. Students have no rights at public schools
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6Khy9A1mT4&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
At several blogs, I’ve had teachers and school administrators make the following statements:
1. The U.S. Constitution only applies to the government
2. Public schools are not the government
3. Students have no rights at public schools
Where do they come up with this stuff? They started teaching it to my kids in first grade. I was labeled an ‘anti-authority’ parent by the schools because I told my kids not to believe everything their teachers told them. They can try to drive me off a cliff. I’ll be kicking and screaming all the way.
From the “market-ticker” link, which is a “must read”, as stated.
“This sort of jackbooted Stasi-style police state crap must be eradicated from this nation and everyone involved in it sued to Mars – then jailed for violating each and every one of these students’ civil rights.” (end quote, for emphasis)
Hopefully, this story won’t fade from view. Hopefully, someone will be held accountable. Call me a cynic, but I doubt it. If we continue down this road , we’re marching right off the cliff. And we may be marching off the cliff anyway.
What I’m seeing in my daily life is aptly described as “jackbooted Stasi-style police state crap” and it’s going on all over this country — I’ve witnessed it in several states now. It’s unbelievable stuff, rather like this story. But it’s true. Where we’re headed is anybody’s guess, at this point.
Karl Denninger of The Market Ticker website completely blew away the school’s claim that the spy program was necessary and/or appropriate for tracking lost or stolen computers. Denninger’s post is not only a “must read” — it’s written as a letter that the reader can send to his or her child’s school principal. You can read it here:
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1986-My-God,-I-Saw-A-Cop!-FBI-And-PA-Schools.html
Any chance that one of those spies was watching teenagers masturbate as they surfed porn sites?
Blouise,
O.J. gone Kato all alone.
Lower Merion School District administrators remind me of Inspector Jacques Clouseau … “There is a time to laugh and a time not to laugh, and this is not one of them.”
Where is Kato when you really need him.
Nal, your ‘ping’ has been recieved. I am glad you tear yourself away from the ‘corrections’ page to post opinions; whatever the problem is, I hope it is resolved quickly.
Tootie,
It is not funny, I saw ike doing mike and mike doing ike. Yick. I don’t know what they do to well. But was in der air.
The question nagging me is the use of webcam software to find lost or stolen computers. The laptops issued by our district have some sort of gps(?) tracking chip. It seems that would be a better means to track them.
Maggie:
LOL….thank you…….Mike and Ike….hahahahaha