School Uses Laptop Webcams to Spy on Students

We've all  heard of school districts handing out laptop computers as study aids for their students.  Assuming that the computers remain property of the school, it is common sense to think that the school has the right to confiscate the laptops or search their hard drives at any time.

Many laptops these days come with built in webcams.  Does the school have the right to activate the webcam anytime it wants to see what students are doing in their own home?  Looks like we will soon find out.

A Lower Merion family has set off a furor among students, parents, and civil liberties groups by alleging that Harriton High School officials used a webcam on a school-issued laptop to spy on their 15-year-old son at home.

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court, the family said the school's assistant principal had confronted their son, told him he had "engaged in improper behavior in [his] home, and cited as evidence a photograph from the webcam embedded in [his] personal laptop issued by the school district."

The suit contends the Lower Merion School District, one of the most prosperous and highest-achieving in the state, had the ability to turn on students' webcams and illegally invade their privacy.

. . .

The suit says that in November, assistant principal Lynn Matsko called in sophomore Blake Robbins and told him that he had "engaged in improper behavior in his home," and cited as evidence a photograph from the webcam in his school-issued laptop.

Matsko later told Robbins' father, Michael, that the district "could remotely activate the webcam contained in a student's personal laptop . . . at any time it chose and to view and capture whatever images were in front of the webcam" without the knowledge or approval of the laptop's users, the suit says.

. . .

Widener University law professor Stephen Henderson said using a laptop camera for home surveillance would violate wiretap laws, even if done to catch a thief.

Student claims school spied on him via computer webcam | Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/19/2010.

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