I’m a little bit flummoxed by what I learned via BoingBoing today about the Lower Merion School District in Pennsylvania.

The school district is being sued by a student as part of a class-action. The allegations are contained in this statement of claim, and if true are more than a bit disturbing.

Essentially, the high-school students each received a notebook computer for use in their studies. It’s not a huge surprise that the computers had integrated webcams.

But student Blake Robbins was told by a vice-principal that he had “engaged in improper behavior at home.” The principal cited a webcam snapshot as evidence of this behaviour. Blake’s father then discovered that each of the computers had remote access software that allowed the school to activate the webcam at any time.

The district has since sent out a letter from Superintendent Christopher McGinley to the district community and a letter to parents, which are available on their web site. The community letter says (in part):

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 letter to parents says:

The District never activated the security feature for any other purpose or in any other manner whatsoever.

I hope that the allegations made in the suit are wrong and that the district superintendent is right. Because it’s more than a little creepy to imagine that school officials have the ability to peek on their students wherever they happen to be using their computers, and even creepier to imagine a vice-principal saying “you were a naughty boy last night, Blake… I saw you.”

Of course, if the student allegations are correct, the superintendent has just lied to the community and parents.

I’m not sure what universe you’d have to live in to consider the covert observation of students off school property using webcams and undisclosed remote access software an acceptable act. But if you check out this video from PBS’s Frontline, you’ll see a vice-principal at another school chuckling  about how he can snap remote pictures of his students and catch them goofing off.

My advice to students reading this blog? Duct tape. Or a little blob of this stuff, right over the camera.

My advice to the district? Find out if the allegations are true, and settle like a madman. You totally fouled this up.

UPDATE: According to this NBC story, the student who was disciplined was caught eating Mike & Ike’s on camera, which apparently look like pills. He was accused of using drugs. Story below:

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