Locker Room Cams Rile Parents

A Tennessee middle school allowed security cameras to film children undressing in locker rooms and then stored the images on a computer accessible through the Internet, according to a lawsuit filed by a group of angry parents.

The lawsuit filed last week in federal court in Nashville seeks $4.2 million in damages.

The parents contend the school system violated students' rights by putting hidden cameras in boys and girls locker rooms at Livingston Middle School. The cameras reportedly captured students, ages 10-14, in various stages of undress.

"The parents have been devastated by the conduct of the school officials, by the videotaping and by the breach of trust," said attorney Mark Chalos, who represents the parents of 16 girls and one boy.

Chuck Cagle, lawyer for Overton County Schools, said he wouldn't comment because he hadn't read the lawsuit.

EduTech Inc., the company that installed the surveillance cameras in several Overton County schools also was named in the lawsuit. Officials with the company had no comment.

Parents learned of the cameras when a student reported a suspicious device in the school at Livingston, about 80 miles east of Nashville.

The lawsuit contends that images captured by the cameras were stored on a hard drive in the office of the assistant principal could be accessed from remote computers by the Internet. It claims the computer's password security had not been changed from the factory default setting.

The images were reportedly accessed 98 times between July 2002 and January 2003 — sometimes late at night and early in the morning — and through Internet providers in Tennessee and South Carolina.

William Needham, director of Overton County Schools, said the assistant principal has been transferred to another school in the system.

Chalos said he doesn't know if the cameras are still operating.