Lower Merion School District Sued for Remote Webcam Usage
Angry students and parents have filed a lawsuit against the Lower Merion School District of Ardmore, Pennsylvania for “”unauthorized, inappropriate and indiscriminate remote activation” of webcams. The webcams were part of MacBook laptops issued to 1,800 students at the two high schools in the district as part of a government funded intiative. The lawsuit claims the webcams were activated without the student’s knowledge or consent.
The use of the webcams came to light when a student, the son of Michael and Holly Robbins, was informed by Harriton High School assistant principal Lindy Mastko that he was “engaged in improper behavior in his home.”
When the student and his father confronted Mastko about the allegations, they were informed that the school district had the right to remotely activate the webcam.” It was believed that the student took a photo of himself and accidentally uploaded it to the school network.
The Robbins family filed the lawsuit, which seeks an unspecified amount for compensatory and punitive damages as well as an injunction to prevent the school district from activating the webcams.
Christopher McGinley, the superintendent, issued a statement on the school district’s website which admitted that “the laptops do contain a security feature intended to track lost, stolen and missing laptops. This feature has been deactivated effective today.” The statement went on to read that the school district would not be “reactivating the tracking-security feature without express written notification to all students and families.”