Loaner school laptops used to spy on kids, families

What dumbarse thought this was in any way okay?

It is SO going to hit the fan - especially since some of those they are recording are minors!!!!

I am the IT director in a school district and would never think of doing this while the students are at home. Our laptops have an Internet Filter that works no matter where it is, we can get reports on their activity, but under no circumstances should we be able to view live video while they are at home. It might be a stretch but I think that we could view the video feed while they are at school especially if there was a valid reason. I think this goes way beyond what the schools need to be doing, it will be interesting to see how this turns out.

While I'm not defending it I'm sure there is much more to this than meets the eye. I can't imagine any school administrator or teacher having this much time on their hands.

I'm wondering if this wasn't something that was recorded by the student and found by an administrator?

The article doesn't mention how the parents knew that the laptop was activated remotely, the article simply says it was so. There was no link to the actual filings so there's no way to verify this statement. I'm not saying that it didn't happen, but I can totally understand an abused child recording something then trying to use this excuse to prevent additional abuse.

While I'm not defending it I'm sure there is much more to this than meets the eye. I can't imagine any school administrator or teacher having this much time on their hands.

I'm wondering if this wasn't something that was recorded by the student and found by an administrator?

The article doesn't mention how the parents knew that the laptop was activated remotely, the article simply says it was so. There was no link to the actual filings so there's no way to verify this statement. I'm not saying that it didn't happen, but I can totally understand an abused child recording something then trying to use this excuse to prevent additional abuse.

There is a link to the legal case at the bottom of the article, in a PDF.

Robbins v. Lower Merion School District (PDF)

There is a link to the legal case at the bottom of the article, in a PDF.

Robbins v. Lower Merion School District (PDF)

Also, here is the schools direct response to these allegations...

LMSD | Lower Merion School District Announcements

Hmm, I'm still not convinced this is big brother just randomly peeking in someone's window.

Also, here is the schools direct response to these allegations...

LMSD | Lower Merion School District Announcements

How did the security feature work?

Upon a report of a suspected lost, stolen or missing laptop, the feature was activated by the District's security and technology departments. The tracking-security feature was limited to taking a still image of the operator and the operator's screen. This feature has only been used for the limited purpose of locating a lost, stolen or missing laptop. The District has not used the tracking feature or web cam for any other purpose or in any other manner whatsoever.

A highschool distributes macs to the entire student population loaded with software which with the flip of a switch, allows school admins to start taking pictures through the laptop's web cam. They thought this was a good idea? Heads should roll.

FBI is looking into it now...I will wager any other schools with this ability are looking into their policies right now!

Official: FBI probing Pa. school webcam spy case - Yahoo! News

One still shot. Good lord, I'm betting the little turd was trying to hack into and set it off.

It's hard without all the facts to figure out exactly what's going on there. It certainly sounds hard to believe.

OTOH, school systems are the home of 'zero tolerance' policies. In my experience 'zero tolerance' equates to 'zero intelligence' and 'zero judgement'.

The big open issue seems to be that the school claims it only used this to track down stolen laptops, but the kid involved in the lawsuit apparently was reprimanded for being pictured in his bedroom "taking drugs" which he later claimed was just Mike and Ike candy.

My general argument against something like this is that it's open to potential abuse. First you're snapping shots of kids who supposedly stole laptops, next your peeping in on the troubled kids to help "protrect them", next your peeping in on all student just looking for anything wrong. Sounds like that's exactly what happened here.

There are plenty of ways to track stolen laptops that don't involve giving adults the power to peep through web cams at a child's activites. Honestly I don't know what these admins were thinking. You would think somebody who knew about this would have stood up at some points and said, "um, guys, maybe this isn't the brightest idea we've come up with."

Note to concerned parents about laptop camera abuse. Included is a manual over ride device:

This just keeps getting stranger and stranger

Apparently, the 'bad behavior' of the student turned out to be eating candy as he worked on the computer. The article here mentions Mike & Ike candies which I am not familiar with.

There is still no really verified version of events. Its just a media frenzy. From this story:

They do kinda look like gel caps, although I gotta say that this is way over reaction.

Apparently, the 'bad behavior' of the student turned out to be eating candy as he worked on the computer. The article here mentions Mike & Ike candies which I am not familiar with.

There is still no really verified version of events. Its just a media frenzy. From this story:

​

The kicker is that the school district denies doing it. The one thing they can't explain is how they managed to have a picture of the kid eating the Mike & Ikes! They are so busted. Admit to it, take your lumps, and do a software push to get rid of the program that allows them to do this. Bottom line is that their areses are in a huge sling, and now, the FBI is involved.

Or it comes out that the kid had hacked it and got caught. I can guarantee if it were actually drugs this would have never made the news, and Junior would be in a rehab clinic somewhere.