Parents Oppose School Webcam Lawsuit

(AP)  PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Some suburban Philadelphia parents are seeking to halt a potential class-action lawsuit accusing their school district of using cameras in school-issued laptops to spy on students at home.

Three sets of parents of students at Lower Merion and Harriton high schools filed documents in federal court Thursday asking for permission to intervene in the case.

The family of 15-year-old Harriton High School student Blake Robbins is seeking class-action status for a lawsuit accusing the Lower Merion School District of photographing him in his bedroom. The district has said it activated the cameras only to locate missing laptops.

Parents who object to the lawsuit say they are angry about the webcams but are concerned about the financial impact of a class-action settlement. Nearly 500 district parents have signed a petition opposing the class-action suit.

"We see no benefit to the school district or to the students if a large damage award is gained by the plaintiffs," said Larry Silver, one of several attorneys for the anti-lawsuit group. He also has a child in the wealthy school district on Philadelphia's Main Line.

"We want a positive resolution to this matter," he said. "We want them to get back to their educational mission."

In their complaint submitted in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, they requested hiring an independent public advocate, permanently banning laptop webcam use by the district and implementing new regulations on the proper use of technologies.

The district remotely activated 42 webcams over 14 months, successfully locating 18 missing computers. School officials have declined to describe the resulting photographs, and the district has halted the practice amid the lawsuit and resulting state and federal criminal probes.

In the civil suit filed in February, Robbins said a school official approached him and warned that, based on webcam photos, he was suspected of selling drugs. Robbins denies the allegation.

Mark Haltzmann, attorney for Robbins, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. He has 14 days to respond to the parents' complaint.

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On the Net:

Lower Merion School District: http://www.lmsd.org

Parents group: http://www.lmsdparents.org

[tmittelstaed]

These parents are idiots. The school is not going to change unless they get hurt and taking money away is about the only way you can hurt a school district.

School-owned laptops are a horrendous idea anyway. For starters they chose the most expensive laptops available, and secondly the things go obsolete within 3-4 years. So even if the school gets all the laptops back, after 4 years they are worthless - even the students don't want them then. If the parents really want the schools to get back to work educating the kids they would make the schools take all the laptops back and get rid of them. Yes, you can find a lot of stuff on the Internet, but it's no substitute for a library with research books in it.

[KeithDrippingSprings]

It was wrong, the school was wrong. The arrogant vice principle should have apologized instead of defending herself. She shouldn't have lied when confronted.

This comes under the heading of, what were they thinking? They were being their arrogant self righteous selves. Like many in Academia they believe in their wonderful selves and the rest of us just don't understand.

Well, I hope they get their just rewards, and the the law suit, with the damages, are high enough that the administration has to fire everyone involved. Of course if any of them are union members they can't be fired they will just be sent to the rubber room.

[IndiasWorstTechSupport]

If they wanted to turn on the camera's on they should of requested an Officer to be present first so nothing like this could have happened.

[KeithDrippingSprings]

An officer doesn't make this right under any circumstances. They were opening computers that were not reported stolen. They were spying on

[barbaram99]

I am a lay person. It is not about moey. It is to ask they not do this in using the web cams to spy on them in their homes..May be lawyer in the know could explain the different kind of suits other then money ones..People only think the money kind. I am not in the know on all the techy things. I surely would not want anyone watching me in my home. That is crossing the line. I see no need for a web cam. My machines don't have them. I am alllapped the schools would cross that line. I realise there are machine with web cams..The issued the students notebooks and the record should be kept of who has a school issued notebook. I see no need to turn on the web cam. Years ago when we when issued books for class teacher wrote down our names and the books we were given to use. When they were to be turnt in the teacher knew we were to hand them in and marked then off. We had to take care of the school issued books. Them books were heary. We had school lockers in high school.