{"id":534564,"date":"2010-04-19T10:28:21","date_gmt":"2010-04-19T14:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/80beats\/?p=13633"},"modified":"2010-04-19T10:28:21","modified_gmt":"2010-04-19T14:28:21","slug":"school-spying-case-school-accused-of-taking-thousands-of-webcam-photos-80beats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/534564","title":{"rendered":"School Spying Case: School Accused of Taking Thousands of Webcam Photos | 80beats"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13640\" title=\"MacBook_Pro_17\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/80beats\/files\/2010\/04\/MacBook_Pro_17.jpg\" alt=\"MacBook_Pro_17\" width=\"220\" height=\"177\" align=\"left\"\/>It&#8217;s been two months since we last heard from the court case engulfing Lower Merion School District in Pennsylvania, but the circumstances there keep getting stranger.<\/p>\n<p>Back in February, the family of sophomore Blake Robbins <a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/80beats\/2010\/02\/18\/lawsuit-webcams-in-school-issued-laptops-used-to-spy-on-students-at-home\/\">filed suit against the school<\/a>, charging that administrators had remotely accessed the webcams on Apple laptops loaned out to students to take pictures of students in their homes. Now, after two months of investigation, the family&#8217;s lawyers have expanded the case by claiming the school actually took thousands of photos. <span style=\"color:#1c39bb;\">Some of the images included pictures of youths at home, in bed or even \u201cpartially dressed,\u201d according to a Thursday filing in the case [<a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.com\/threatlevel\/2010\/04\/webcamscanda\/\">Wired.com<\/a>]<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-13633\"><\/span>School board president David Ebby called the motion &#8220;a vehicle to attack the District,&#8221; but he also acknowledged &#8220;mistakes and misguided actions that have led us to this situation.&#8221; <span style=\"color:#1c39bb;\">Ebby conceded that the school-issued laptops had taken a &#8220;substantial number of webcam photos,&#8221; and said it had proposed to Judge DuBois that families of students who appear in those photographs be notified and given the chance to view the images [<a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"http:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/s\/article\/9175739\/Pa._school_district_snapped_thousands_of_student_images_claims_lawyer?taxonomyId=84&amp;pageNumber=1\"><em>Computer World<\/em><\/a>]<\/span>. To that end, DuBois on Wednesday <a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"http:\/\/www.philly.com\/inquirer\/local\/pa\/20100415_Judge_restricts_access_to_L__Merion_laptop_photos.html\">ordered people involved in the case<\/a> to stop any further dissemination of the photos or screen shots until the parents whose children had been photographed are notified. Ebby promised to begin the process shortly.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"intellitxt\">In the Robbins&#8217; newest motion, their attorney Mark Haltzman took aim in particular at Carol Cafiero, the school district&#8217;s technology coordinator, calling her a possible &#8220;voyeur&#8221; and asking for access to her personal computers to hunt for further evidence. <span style=\"color:#1c39bb;\">To support the charge, he cited her response to an e-mail from a colleague who said viewing the webcam pictures was like watching &#8220;a little LMSD soap opera.&#8221; &#8220;I know, I love it!&#8221; Cafiero allegedly replied [<em><a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"http:\/\/www.pcmag.com\/article2\/0,2817,2362791,00.asp\">PC World<\/a><\/em>]<\/span>. Cafiero&#8217;s representatives maintain that she turned on the remote access to student laptops only when<\/span><span id=\"intellitxt\"> ordered by school administrators. However, Haltzman says that <\/span><span id=\"intellitxt\">Cafiero<\/span><span id=\"intellitxt\"> invoked the Fifth Amendment in response to every question in her deposition. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Lower Merion saga started when school administrators tried to discipline Blake Robbins on accusations of undisclosed bad behavior. <span style=\"color:#1c39bb;\">That \u201cbehavior\u201d turned out to be pill popping. The family said their son was eating Mike and Ike candy <a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.com\/threatlevel\/2010\/04\/webcamscanda\/\">[Wired.com<\/a>]<\/span>. A few days later the school admitted to activating the webcams 42 times, but only in response to possibly lost or stolen computers. This new motion alleges that the school&#8217;s secret surveillance went far beyond that.<\/p>\n<p>Related Content:<br \/>\n80beats: <a rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Permanent Link: Lawsuit: Webcams in School-Issued Laptops Used to Spy on Students at Home\"  href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/80beats\/2010\/02\/18\/lawsuit-webcams-in-school-issued-laptops-used-to-spy-on-students-at-home\/\">Lawsuit: Webcams in School-Issued Laptops Used to Spy on Students at Home<\/a><br \/>\n80beats: <a rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Permanent Link: School Spying Update: District Used Webcams 42 Times; FBI on the Case\"  href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/80beats\/2010\/02\/22\/school-spying-update-district-used-webcams-42-times-fbi-on-the-case\/\">School Spying Update: District Used Webcams 42 Times; FBI on the Case<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Image: Wikimedia Commons \/ <a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"http:\/\/flickr.com\/people\/aplumb\/\">Andrew Plumb<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/fnmJkHVqFNj-uLCmpHo-i2WZpqE\/0\/da\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/fnmJkHVqFNj-uLCmpHo-i2WZpqE\/0\/di\" border=\"0\" ismap><\/a><br \/>\n<a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/fnmJkHVqFNj-uLCmpHo-i2WZpqE\/1\/da\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/fnmJkHVqFNj-uLCmpHo-i2WZpqE\/1\/di\" border=\"0\" ismap><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/80beats?a=xOBe44_JZkM:_-lUhIeoJs8:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/80beats?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/a> <a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/80beats?a=xOBe44_JZkM:_-lUhIeoJs8:V_sGLiPBpWU\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/80beats?i=xOBe44_JZkM:_-lUhIeoJs8:V_sGLiPBpWU\" border=\"0\"><\/a> <a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/80beats?a=xOBe44_JZkM:_-lUhIeoJs8:gIN9vFwOqvQ\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/80beats?i=xOBe44_JZkM:_-lUhIeoJs8:gIN9vFwOqvQ\" border=\"0\"><\/a> <a rel=\"nofollow\"  href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/80beats?a=xOBe44_JZkM:_-lUhIeoJs8:F7zBnMyn0Lo\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/80beats?i=xOBe44_JZkM:_-lUhIeoJs8:F7zBnMyn0Lo\" border=\"0\"><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/80beats\/~4\/xOBe44_JZkM\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/DiscoverMag\/~4\/bhmaDh0wkrY\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been two months since we last heard from the court case engulfing Lower Merion School District in Pennsylvania, but the circumstances there keep getting stranger. Back in February, the family of sophomore Blake Robbins filed suit against the school, charging that administrators had remotely accessed the webcams on Apple laptops loaned out to students [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":641,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-534564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/641"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534564\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}