Paging Mr. Orwell...
norm
Posts: 31,146
School Officials Likened to "Peeping Toms"
The family that sued to get a suburban Pennsylvania school district to stop secretly viewing students at home via webcams on school-issued laptops is blasting the practice, though it's been halted.
Officials of the Lower Merion School District, outside Philadelphia, acknowledged Friday that they remotely activated webcams 42 times in the past 14 months, but only to find missing laptops given to students. They insist they never did so to spy on students, as the family of 16-year-old Blake Robbins claimed in the federal lawsuit.
The district has suspended the practice amid the lawsuit and the accompanying uproar from students, the community and privacy advocates.
And the family's lawyer, Mark Haltzman, told "Early Show Saturday Edition" co-anchor Erica Hill he's been informed that the FBI has opened a criminal investigation of the webcam use.
A source told The Associated Press the bureau is exploring whether the district broke any federal wiretap or computer-intrusion laws.
Hill says school officials haven't responded to a request from CBS News for reaction to word of the FBI probe.
Haltzman says the family filed suit only to get the remote webam use stopped.
Blake Robbins, the teen at the center of the controversy, told Hill it all began when Harriton High School administrators falsely accused him of selling drugs and taking pills; then said they had webcam images to prove it.
Blake says the pictures are of him eating candies.
Blake's mother, Holly Robbins, says she "was panicked" when she learned what was going on. "I thought this was just horrifying, that somebody could, especially the school, come into my home and spy on my son, and my daughter - she's 18 years old. And it was scary. It was like having a Peeping Tom."
Blake's sister, Paige Robbins, told Hill she "can say that on behalf of all of my girlfriends at Harriton, we were very scared, because we don't check to see if the lid is closed when we're changing. We take them in the bathroom when we're in the shower to listen to music. So, we're all petrified. We don't know who's on the other end watching us do whatever."
His father, Michael Robbins, says he's taking a wait-and-see approach before declaring himself satisfied with the district's response to the lawsuit.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/ ... 6260.shtml
The family that sued to get a suburban Pennsylvania school district to stop secretly viewing students at home via webcams on school-issued laptops is blasting the practice, though it's been halted.
Officials of the Lower Merion School District, outside Philadelphia, acknowledged Friday that they remotely activated webcams 42 times in the past 14 months, but only to find missing laptops given to students. They insist they never did so to spy on students, as the family of 16-year-old Blake Robbins claimed in the federal lawsuit.
The district has suspended the practice amid the lawsuit and the accompanying uproar from students, the community and privacy advocates.
And the family's lawyer, Mark Haltzman, told "Early Show Saturday Edition" co-anchor Erica Hill he's been informed that the FBI has opened a criminal investigation of the webcam use.
A source told The Associated Press the bureau is exploring whether the district broke any federal wiretap or computer-intrusion laws.
Hill says school officials haven't responded to a request from CBS News for reaction to word of the FBI probe.
Haltzman says the family filed suit only to get the remote webam use stopped.
Blake Robbins, the teen at the center of the controversy, told Hill it all began when Harriton High School administrators falsely accused him of selling drugs and taking pills; then said they had webcam images to prove it.
Blake says the pictures are of him eating candies.
Blake's mother, Holly Robbins, says she "was panicked" when she learned what was going on. "I thought this was just horrifying, that somebody could, especially the school, come into my home and spy on my son, and my daughter - she's 18 years old. And it was scary. It was like having a Peeping Tom."
Blake's sister, Paige Robbins, told Hill she "can say that on behalf of all of my girlfriends at Harriton, we were very scared, because we don't check to see if the lid is closed when we're changing. We take them in the bathroom when we're in the shower to listen to music. So, we're all petrified. We don't know who's on the other end watching us do whatever."
His father, Michael Robbins, says he's taking a wait-and-see approach before declaring himself satisfied with the district's response to the lawsuit.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/ ... 6260.shtml
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
Some people just have to know what goes on behind closed doors. As William S. Burrough's said 'some people just can't mind their own business, because they have no business of their own to mind'.
Lancaster PA has something like 112 cameras... the most per capita in the US.
Something is VERY wrong when the city has money to pay for all this surveillance (which hasn't done a thing to reduce crime) BUT during all the snow the last few weeks I spent probably 10 hours of my own time shoveling their streets because they weren't plowing our road.... guess that $4,200 in property taxes that I pay yearly gets me a camera watching my every move but not basic services like snow removal (or trash removal).
what are you but my reflection? who am i to judge or strike you down?
"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank." - Barack Obama
when you told me 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em'
i was thinkin 'death before dishonor'
I've been meaning to get to that book... I've heard it is one of the Top 3 "Dystopian" novels along with 1984 and Brave New World (Huxley). I liked 1984 and Brave New World was pretty good, too.
The Iron Heel by Jack London ain't 1/2 bad, either. and he at least doesn't bother creating a fake country, it takes place in the US and sadly some of what he wrote has come true
what are you but my reflection? who am i to judge or strike you down?
"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank." - Barack Obama
when you told me 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em'
i was thinkin 'death before dishonor'
how'd they get the webcam pics then?
what are you but my reflection? who am i to judge or strike you down?
"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank." - Barack Obama
when you told me 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em'
i was thinkin 'death before dishonor'
i have not seen any reports positive or negative that the laptop was report stolen or not. the records from the school have been subponeaed by a grand jury - this is not going to end well for the school district. if anyone did view anything without a laptop being reported stolen someone could be going to jail. very messy situation.
Don't give students laptops to take home.
They can either:
A. Use the school (taxpayer) owned computers in the school's library or computer room... OR
B. Get a computer from Best Buys.
...
Problem solved... lawsuits averted.
Hail, Hail!!!
Makes sense to me...I was actually surprised while reading this to see that the school actually let the students take the laptops home.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/2 ... 77935.html