In a law suit filed in the United States Easter District, Philadelphia, Parents of a Lower Merion School District student allege that High School officials used school-issued laptop computers to illegally spy on students.
The Civil Action Complaint claims that unnamed school officials at Harriton High School remotely activated the webcam on a student's computer last year because the district believed he "was engaged in improper behavior in his home."
An assistant principal at Harriton confronted the student for "improper behavior" on and used a photograph taken by the webcam as evidence.
The Suit seeks to be "certified" as a class action. That happens when a first Plaintiff files a case and requests that the Court certify it as the type of case that involved a class of similarly situated victims. Those additional persons can then elect to join the class action.
The district has issued school-owned laptops to 2,290 high school students, starting last school year at Harriton, in an effort to promote more "engaged and active learning and enhanced student achievement," the superintendent said in a message on the district website.
In a statement on its website, the district said that "The laptops do contain a security feature intended to track lost, stolen and missing laptops. This feature has been deactivated effective today."
In another statement, the district said: "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."
The Complaint alleges that when the computers were given to students, the school district did not reveal that it could or would activate the cameras at any time.
The Complaint pleads that the school district violated federal and state wiretapping laws and violated students' civil rights and is an invasion of privacy.
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