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Lower Merion Webcam-Gate
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| Courtesy of philly.com |
Last night, Ballard Spahr released its investigative report of Lower Merion School District's laptop tracking program the one involving Blake Robbins, if you recall.
You can click here to download a PDF of the whole 72-page doozy. Or, if that's not your jam, check back on Thursday for City Paper's highlights of the report.
PREVIOUSLY>> Webcam-gate, now with pictures!
PREVIOUSLY>> Inky: Laptop family lives in Main Line mansion, doesn't like to pay the power bill
PREVIOUSLY>> Blake Robbins' crime? Popping Mike-and-Ike's, he says.
[...] Read the Webcam-gate report in its entirety :: The Clog :: Blog Archive :: Staff Blog :: Philadelphi... [...]
[...] Read the Webcam-gate report in its entirety :: The Clog :: Blog Archive :: Staff Blog :: Philadelphi... [...]
[...] Read the Webcam-gate report in its entirety :: The Clog :: Blog Archive :: Staff Blog :: Philadelphi... [...]
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| Courtesy of Philly.com |
Apparently, victim blaming isn't just for victims of sexism or racism, anymore. It works for victims of privacy invasion, too! Lower Merion information systems coordinator Carol Cafiero's attorney said as much in a court filing yesterday, in reference to Blake Robbins, the student who was photographed unwittingly via his school-issued laptop Webcam:
Cafiero who is on paid leave while the district investigates the laptop controversy claimed Robbins lost any legal protection from the Web-camera security system when he took a school laptop home without permission.
"When you're in the home, you should have a legitimate expectation of privacy," [Cafiero's attorney Charles] Mandracchia said in an interview. "But if you're taking something without permission, how can you cry foul when you shouldn't have it anyway?"
I guess someone's momma didn't teach them that two wrongs don't make a right. This argument seems especially dubious now, after news came out that the district used the Webcam feature to take nearly 56,000 images of students (as in, not just Robbins). And while the feature was usually used on laptops that had went missing, in at least five cases officials let the Webcam continue taking photos for days and even weeks after they were found.
PREVIOUSLY>> Webcam-gate, now with pictures!
PREVIOUSLY>> Inky: Laptop family lives in Main Line mansion, doesn't like to pay the power bill
PREVIOUSLY>> Blake Robbins' crime? Popping Mike-and-Ike's, he says.
So Carol Cafiero thinks that Blake has no expectation of privacy in bed in his own room, because his parents didn't pay a $55 insurance fee. Right. For her to think that, she must have been hearing this kind of thing from the administration, and the total disregard for civil rights of students became part of the culture of the school. Not a good sign.
In any other situation, someone who took something without permission would have been invesitgated by the police, warrants would have been issued and the law would have been followed. That would have been the proper way to deal with this. Let the police get a warrant to turn on the camera. I find it really hard to believe that the school continued to let this kid use a lap top at all, in school or out, if he did "smash a three or four laptops" If they did, then they are idiots.
You are right. A dubious argument at best. What the district did was wrong and they are guilty at this point of being really stupid. Not a federal crime. At least not yet. Of course, Blake did smash a three or four laptops before finally settling on one that he took home without proper position. guess that's not a crime either.
The school district (and not just any old school district, ya know?) left themselves vulnerable to the deadbeat scum that is the Robbins family. Word around the campfire is that these bums filed for public assistance after racking up debts to everyone and their grandmother's pet goldfish and have a long list of questionable lawsuits in their past. Maybe selling the house they own in one of the wealthiest zipcodes in the nation might make their parasitic existence a little more tolerable. What a nauseating sense of entitlement. It is a shame that people this worthless and pathetic are at the center of an otherwise legitimate issue.
Maybe Carol Cafiero's attorney can answer how the assistance principle got a copy of one of these pictures and how using that picture to accuse a student of drug use, has anything to do with a stolen laptop.
Why do you have to be perfect to defend your civil rights? I heard the "campfire stories" as well, but that doesn't excuse the SD's behaviour. The SD's IT dept didn't take 56,000 pictures of him. This goes way beyond recovering stolen laptops, unless they have had 56,000 stolen laptops?
Obviously the LMSD is guilty! I did not dispute that. Way to miss the point and basically repeat me, Jenny.
I will try to process this story in my brain a little more and write something more cogent about it tomorrow. But, anyway, it seems Webcam-gate has gotten a little weirder: According to Blake Robbins' lawyers, the Lower Merion School District's super-spy Webcam gizmo shot pictures of the kid in his bed, sleeping lots of them and then zipped those photos around into the District's network.
And, it seems the lawyers have them.
In the filing, the Penn Valley family claims the district's records show that the controversial tracking system captured more than 400 photos and screen images from 15-year-old Blake Robbins' school-issued laptop during two weeks last fall, and that "thousands of webcam pictures and screen shots have been taken of numerous other students in their homes."
Weirder still:
Robbins, a sophomore at Harriton High School, and his parents, Michael and Holly Robbins, contend e-mails turned over to them by the district suggest [Carol] Cafiero [the system's administrator] "may be a voyeur" who might have viewed some of the photos on her home computer.
The motion says Cafiero, who has been placed on paid leave, has failed to turn that computer over to the plaintiffs despite a court order to do so, and asks a judge to sanction her.
Cafiero's lawyer Thursday night disputed the suggestion that his client had downloaded any such photos to her home computer. Lawyer Charles Mandracchia said Cafiero has cooperated with federal investigators and is willing to let technicians hired by the district examine her computer if the judge so orders.
He also said Robbins' attorney had never asked him for Cafiero's personal computer. "He's making this up because his case is falling apart," Mandracchia said.
PREVIOUSLY>> Inky: Laptop family lives in Main Line mansion, doesn't like to pay the power bill
PREVIOUSLY>> Blake Robbins' crime? Popping Mike-and-Ike's, he says.
[...] PREVIOUSLY>> Webcam-gate, now with pictures! [...]
[...] students’ homes had only happened 42 times. It turns out what they meant was that there were 42 instances when they began intensive surveillance on the suspected stolen computers. This consisted of (among other things) transmitting a picture [...]
In the article, Carol Cafiero says "I know, I love it," (meaning the pictures they get from kids' computers) and therefore probably should be investigated for being a potential pedophile.
Is this supposed to be a sidebar or something? It's like 20 characters wide down the whole page.
I get that you're trying to process the story and this isn't the cogent version, but you misspelled the words "his" and "then" "gizmo shot pictures of the kid in hie bed, sleeping lots of them and thin zipped" just saying
Dave, "I know, I love it," was said in reply to "like a little LMSD soap opera," which to me does not necessarily translate to what you seem to think it implies. She's going to turn over her home computer anyway.
In this week's A Million Stories, we explored the messy Webcam scandal that's going down at Lower Merion School District. The district insists that it only peered through students' Webcams in order to find lost or stolen laptops, and did so using a security software called LANrev. Insanely enough, Douglas Young, the district's spokesperson, told us that it wasn't the only school district using such software: "The software feature isn't just utilized in this school district," says Young. "It's utilized by other school districts and organizations." (He said he couldn't name any offhand.)
Dude wasn't kidding. Young might be onto something. In the thoroughly creepy clip above from the PBS documentary Digital Nation, the assistant principal of Bronx's middle school IS 339, Daniel Ackerman, shows exactly how he can watch kids through their Webcams what software or application he does it with, though, is unclear. Just wait for the part where he says, "They don't even realize that we're watching." Oy. Also: "I always like to mess with them and take their [Photo Booth] picture."
Now, it's unclear if Ackerman watches students from their homes, which is what Lower Merion is accused of doing, but still the students don't even realize he's watching them? Seriously, he thought that was OK? Be sure to watch this clip on PBS' site, too (it's under part four). Not only is the doc great in general, but the reporter (whose face is obscured in the YouTube video) has an absolutely stunned, unamused look on her face as Ackerman is laughing about the whole thing.
UPDATE: I wasn't clear enough earlier about whether or not Ackerman was using LANrev to view these students indeed, from this clip, it's impossible to know.
RELATED: Inky: Laptop family lives in Main Line mansion, doesnt like to pay the power bill
RELATED: So, um, did the kid make it up?
RELATED: Breaking: Lower Merion School District admits it's used Webcam "security feature" more than once
"Just wait for the part where he says, "They don't even realize that we're watching." Oy. Also: "I always like to mess with them and take their [Photo Booth] picture." Lacks context. He's monitoring kids, in schoole, to make sure they're paying attention to the class. Additionally, the kids are somehow alerted when the pics are taken, as they "duck out of the way". It's just a way to say: "Hey, stop goofing off".
They're notified by the fact that Photo Booth starts counting down. (I have a Mac; I've used Photo Booth.) They're not being notified by the school or in any other official way. I wonder if the kids know that the school can watch them at any time. If the administrators have any sense, they will notify the students that they may be under surveillance. That covers the legal issues, and also has an additional bonus: it acts as a deterrent. If they want monitoring to actually prevent slacking, then the students need to know about it. More to the point, what the administrator is doing here amounts to voyeurism. He's openly admitting to being amused watching girls do their makeup, and that strikes me as a tad disturbing.
Agreed, his delivery of the process is...creepy. However, assuming adequate notification of the monitoring (and following certain obvious privacy rules), I have no objections. But it's not really comparable to what Lower Merion did (unless, of course, those certain privacy rules are breached).
When you watch the film, it appears the vp is looking at screenshots - and some students keep the photobooth app open. I don't think the vp actually turns on the camera to look at them if it's not already on, though the filmmakers weren't clear on that. I think mostly they are monitoring the kids for goofing off with IM and facebook. Different from the Lower Merion allegations. STILL, I think the vice principal's attitude (in the clip) toward the surveillance is creepy. AND I think it would be very easy for a perv to abuse the system if they he or she knew how to switch on the cameras.
its great that so many people are "ok" with someone watching minors through remote access- if someone stared at you on the street for 3 minutes you would think they are disturbed and invading your space. Children used to have a comeback "what do you have a stare problem?" because everyone knew it was wrong and disturbing. Now, everyone is conditioned just to accept things- and don't even exercise their rights- there is no need for students to be watched like this- they have a teacher and often times teachers aides- and if 2-3 adults in a classroom isn't enough then that is the issue not "adding" cameras to the mix.
The idea that cameras are now a "management tool" that has been growing in public space and private corporations is repugnant and often times illegal. Wiretapping was previously always the domain of goverment law enforcement- and they had strict hurdles to go through. Companies demanded them for loss prevention- and in strict narrow confines of that it probably is not a bad idea. But where there is opportunity there are rule breakers that cannot control themselves. I recently was accosted by a convenience store manager when she reviewed her "security" tapes and said I lingered too long talking to an employee. Did I chat with her employee-sure- but who cares? Now first, I'm a customer and I don't really care what you say to the employee "keep it short-etc. but I'm a customer and I don't need that. Further, she felt she was gaining some kind of crediblity by saying we have you on tape- all she did was creeep me out and made me realize these people are sitting in the back and spending WAY too much time with their tapes, and not for secuirty. It builds somekind of weird comfort zone/fake relationship with the people they watch. I haven't been back since, won't be back and don't care what justification they claim- security cameras are not management tools- they are there for loss prevention and that is it. This was not loss prevention- it was spying plain and simple- so much of this goes on and people do not even know- but they should be cautious and understand that many companies have vague, inadequate and poorly formed policies that not only don't protect you but exploit you. And even a good policiy is not often followed- there have been lawsuits because employees aim cameras into windows etc. I am clearly for strict limitations on cameras and their uses- loss prevention yes- "management by camera" is a joke and a lie.
Apples and oranges. Bronx school is monitoring usage in school setting.
The Inky has an interesting new twist on Webcamgate today (h/t to the Clog commenters for hipping me; I hadn't read the paper this morning).
The vice chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission could scarcely contain his scorn.
Before the commission was yet another appeal from a Philadelphia-area family, again seeking a break on unpaid electric and gas bills that by last year were closing in on $30,000.
This family lived in a $986,000 house on the Main Line. The breadwinner, until recently, had earned well more than $100,000 per year. Yet he and his wife were in hock to creditors, ranging from Uncle Sam to their former synagogue - and had regularly been stiffing Peco Energy for five years, breaking payment plan after payment plan.
"Our procedures," the commission's Tyrone J. Christy wrote in a Dec. 17 motion, "were not meant to allow customers living in $986,000 houses, with incomes in excess of $100,000 per year, to run up arrearages approaching $30,000."
The debtors in question were insurance broker Michael Robbins and his wife, Holly, who now find themselves in the national spotlight after suing the Lower Merion School District, saying it allegedly spied on their child at home via a Web cam on a school-issued laptop.
What's more, it seems the reason Blake's computer may have been considered stolen and hence, why the district may have snapped a picture of Blake, at home, popping Mike and Ikes or whatever the hell he was doing is because the debt-ridden family declined to pay the $55 insurance fee that allows students to take their Macbooks home.
The Robbins' attorney, Mark Haltzman, says these are questions newspapers shouldn't be asking.
"I absolutely advised them, because I know the low level that newspaper people will go to for a story," Haltzman said yesterday, "even if it has nothing to do with the merits of the case."
[snip]
"Why does that matter?" Haltzman said when asked about the debts this week. "This is typical of any time someone stands up for their rights. Everyone tried to find a way to bring them down."
Even so, it was the apparent failure to pay a fee - a $55 insurance payment to permit the Robbinses' son Blake to take his laptop home from Harriton High School - that might have prompted the district to activate the Web cam.
Right. Because you get to accuse school officials of spying on their children in their homes their bedrooms, even and no one's going to question your motives.
Doesn't make the school district's policy choices correct, but at least the pieces are starting to fall in place.
As far as I know LMSD policy does not allow students who do not carry insurance on the laptops to take them off school grounds.
I still think there are ways to track stolen computers than to take pictures from an embedded web cam. Who knows what problems they are just asking for with that kind of policy. Lets say the kids knew about it, stole a laptop and sat around naked in front of the webcam just to get the school in trouble. How would a school system register on the sex offenders list anyway?
LMSD certainly has no grounds to complain about people living beyond their means in million dollar homes. That kind of lifestyle is the driving force behind the huge property tax flows that fund this bloated, profligate-spending school district.
[...] RELATED: Inky: Laptop family lives in Main Line mansion, doesnt like to pay the power bill RELATED: So, um, did the kid make it up? RELATED: Breaking: Lower Merion School District admits it's used Webcam "security feature" more than once Tags: bronx is 339, daniel ackerman, digital nation, douglas young, lower merion school district PBS documentary shows Bronx school watching unwitting students via Webcams [...]
PECO is not only creditor getting stiffed. Check the Montgomery County website legal actions section. Three pages of activity involving this couple.
Its Simple as far as I am concerned, It comes down to its the Schools Laptop they can do what they want with it, if they want to have tracking software on it they can and when its Missing they should be free to turn on the tracking software to locate property. The laptop was MIA the school has every right to try and find it. I am shocked given all this that the Judge has not tossed this case out yet.
[...] "He's making this up because his case is falling apart," Mandracchia said. PREVIOUSLY>> Inky: Laptop family lives in Main Line mansion, doesn't like to pay the power bill PREVIOUSLY>> Blake Robbins' crime? Popping Mike-and-Ike's, he says. Webcam-gate, now with [...]
RE message from Jim Steele - How do you do this, check the Montgomery County website.
I didn't make Harriton High assistant principal Lindy Matkso's press conference/statement reading this morning, on account of the endless, degenerating hours of meetings that consume my Wednesdays, but from the Inky's account, it seems Matsko who, according to the lawsuit filed by Blake Robbins last week, allegedly obtained a picture of Robbins supposedly involved in some sort of illicit act (later, we heard it was pill-popping, or maybe candy-eating) from the Webcam of the laptop the district issues students simply, and vehemently, denied any wrongdoing, adding that she would never spy on students or punish them for stuff they did off school grounds. She took no questions.
In a voice that swelled and quavered with apparent anger, Harriton High School Assistant Vice Principal Lindy Matsko this morning decried the "many falsehoods and misperceptions" about her role in the Lower Merion school's webcam tumult sparked by a student's lawsuit.
"At no time have I ever monitored a student via a laptop webcam," said Matsko, who is in her 25th year working for Lower Merion School District, "nor have I ever authorized the monitoring of a student via a laptop webcam, either at school or in the home. And I never would."
Matsko, who was speaking for the first time since the suit was filed last week, did not take questions after the six-minute statement she delivered in the Center City office of her attorney, Dennis Abramson.
She said she has been the recipient of "numerous" mean and threatening emails.
Reading from a sheet of paper that shook in her hands, Matsko said allegations she participated in monitoring Harriton sophomore Blake Robbins in his home via the camera of his school-issued MacBook were "offensive, abhorrent and outrageous," her volume rising after every word.
OK, I understand that she can't answer questions. There is, indeed, a federal lawsuit. But her statement, like the one the school district itself issued Feb. 18, the day the lawsuit went public, raises more questions than it answers: Clearly, the school district had a system that allowed it to remotely activate a Webcam and snap a picture. The district has said it used such a device 42 times in 14 months, to catch laptop thieves. The district has also said that it made a mistake by not alerting parents about their ability to do so.
And at some point, Blake Robbins found out about this. He says it was when Matsko tried to punish him for allegedly popping pills at home, which he says were candies. According to the district, the only way it would have used its remote activated doohickey was if Blake's computer was reported stolen. That leaves, to my mind, three possibilities: 1.) Robbins' computer was reported stolen by someone, although the lawsuit says the computer in question was his, and the district has never alleged otherwise. 2.) There is no picture of Robbins, he made the whole thing up, and he and his family and their lawyers uncovered this Webcam thing through some other means, though one would presume that school district would have mentioned something about this in the last week. 3.) Robbins' computer wasn't reported stolen, the district took his picture anyway, and everything alleged in the lawsuit is basically true.
Am I missing something? I mean, I think the district needs to answer one question (among a great many, but for starters): Did it, in fact, have a picture of Blake engaged in some sort of wrongdoing, no matter how that image was obtained?
Matsko may well be scapegoated here; I don't mean to imply that she did something shady, because I really have no idea what's going on. I mean, seriously: No school official could be cavalier or dumb enough to think they could spy on kids and no one would ever be the wiser, right? I doubt it. But these stories aren't adding up. If the school district can come out and say that Blake Robbins is lying, why hasn't it done so? In lawsuits, people categorically deny charges all the time; it's not unusual or improper.
That leads me to believe there's an element of truth in what he's saying.
Anybody seeing this tale spin a different way? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
She says she didn't do anything wrong. There are a lot of others who quite possible could have. Read this for some intersting theories of what might have happened: http://strydehax.blogspot.com/2010/02/spy-at-harrington-high.html "The primary piece of evidence, already being reported on by a Fox affiliate, is this amazing promotional webcast for a remote monitoring product named LANRev. In it, Mike Perbix identifies himself as a high school network tech, and then speaks at length about using the track-and-monitor features of LanRev to take surreptitious remote pictures through a high school laptop webcam. A note of particular pride is evident in his voice when he talks about finding a way outside of LANRev to enable "curtain mode", a special remote administration mode that makes remote control of a laptop invisible to the victim. Listen at 35:47, when he says: "you're controlling someone's machine, you don't want them to know what you're doing" -Mike Perbix It isn't until 37 minutes into the video till Perbix begins talking about the Theft Tracking feature, which causes the laptop to go into a mode where it beacons its location and silent webcam screenshots out to an Internet server controlled by the school." If the someone at the school thought the kid was doing something wrong (selling drugs) I have no doubt they would have used any means they though necessary to protect their student body no matter how wrong it might have been. They took a chance and got burned. I'm curious whether the laptops "stolen" from school were never reported to police.
Yes, I can think of some other spins. How about the kid's own Facebook page, which I saw, that showed him smoking weed and drinking beer? Maybe someone saw that. You didn't need 'spy" software. How about the enormous debt this family--who lives in a $900 thousand+ house--owes to PECO, their snyagogue, dentist, the state, the feds, and the very township they are suing? They don't pay their bills. They owed 30K to PECO alone. How come their power wasn't turned off? By the way, their legal issues are all documented in an Inquirer story today. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/20100225_Laptop_family_is_no_stranger_to_legal_disputes.html How come this lawyer--who once represented another party in a suit against the Robbinses--is representing them now? If the family was so concerned about this privacy issue, why didn't they go to the police? FBI? Warn any other families? And how come NOT ONE OTHER FAMILY has come forward to say their kid was spied on too?
If I'm not mistaken, it has been reported that his parents did not pay the $55.00 Insurance fee required to take the laptop off school grounds. If he did have it at home, it was against school policy and could certainly been considered at least "missing"
GetReal, I haven't seen that, but it's entirely possible I just missed it. That would make sense, in at least justifying why they took the picture. I'll poke around and see if I can find it.
Pleashttp://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/20100225_Laptop_family_is_no_stranger_to_legal_disputes.htmle look at the Inquirer story on this family at
[...] Laptop family lives in Main Line mansion, doesnt like to pay the power bill RELATED: So, um, did the kid make it up? RELATED: Breaking: Lower Merion School District admits it's used Webcam "security feature" more [...]
Or the student took a picture of himself on the laptop and put it on facebook or it came up on the school server or when it synched with the school network.
Oh please....the kid probably have issues (and parents definitiely do) but that does not negate the issues with lower merion school district. Once they admitted they did that, they were done. Upper Merion also could have gotten the remote spying webcam/microphone software but their attorney said they would open up a world of problems if they did. But between evil spying laptops, students doe vs. lmsd, older issues of racism and inequality, why doesn't fast eddie order the state to take over the school district? For more of their shenanigans from the cheerleaders check out these other blog post someone sent: http://www.saveardmorecoalition.org/node/4267 http://www.saveardmorecoalition.org/node/4269 http://www.saveardmorecoalition.org/node/4266 http://www.saveardmorecoalition.org/node/4260
Editor's note: Yesterday marked the first hearing in that bizarre Lower Merion Webcam-gate lawsuit. Intern Christine Adkins was there, and files this report:
The Lower Merion School Board fiasco continued Monday when attorneys met with US District Court Judge Jan E. DuBios to work out a temporary restraining order in the potentially class-action case filed by the parents of 16-year-old Blake Robbins, whose privacy was allegedly invaded by school district officials.
The first 45 minutes of the hearing featured school district attorney Arthur Makadon and Mark Haltzman, the Robbinses' attorney, going through a stream of objections as to the specific wording of the would-be restraining order to prevent the district from essentially deleting data that may be of use to the plaintiffs as the case moves forward. The image-conscious district didnt like the word injunction; Haltzman wanted to use prohibited. Though in the judicial world, wording is everything, one would assume that practicing attorneys could agree to a few vocabulary terms in under an hour. Not so. And as you sit there, taking this all in, suddenly you find yourself wondering if you will be found tomorrow in the same courtroom, roused by a security officer, comatose and mumbling SAT vocabulary lists.
The ACLU of Pennsylvania filed an amicus brief in support of Robbins' case. However, an ACLU attorney, who had conference called-in for the hearing, said the civil rights group didn't intend to actively participate in the suit.
The event concluded two and half hours after this allegedly short hearing began, revised order agreed upon, signed and entered into record. The new order, which does not use the words restraining order, forces the participants to select a mutual forensic experts for analyzing and copying Robbins laptop, prohibits district Webcams from being remotely activated, forbids the school district from contacting members of Robbins class concerning the lawsuit, and prevents the district from providing updates to parents without the consent of Robbins counsel at least six hours prior.
Exciting stuff, really.
NBC 10 got an interview with the kid (and his lawyer) at the center of the Lower Merion School District scandal. According to their story, we now know the supposed inappropriate behavior that the School District snapped a photo of, via Blake's Web cam: The district thought they caught him popping pills. Blake Robbins says they were Mike-N-Ike's candies.
The 16-year-old from Penn Valley, Pa. claims Matsko showed him photos remotely taken with the built-in webcam on his MacBook, according to the suit.
In the photos, the teen was allegedly holding two pill-shaped objects, says Robbins' attorney Mark Haltzman. School officials believed they were drugs, while the family maintains they were simply Mike-N-Ike candy.
"They were trying to allege thatâ¦those were pills and somehow he was involved in selling drugs," Halzman said Friday.
Of course, the district told us yesterday, in so many words, that Blake's computer had to have been reported stolen, or else they wouldn't have activated the security contraption on his MacBook. The AP has reported that district officials have said that only two tech department folks had the authority to activate that security feature, which, of course, raises the question: How the hell did a Harriton High assistant principal get her hands on a photo of Blake eating candy, or whatever? Also, as Holly reported yesterday, the district has done this before, though how often remains unclear. From the NBC story:
If the allegations of spying prove to be true, Blake may not be the only victim. Other students claim they've seen their webcam go live while off school grounds and worry they've been spied on too.
âOccasionally a green light would go on, on your computer which would kind of give you the feeling that somebody's watching you,â Harriton High School student Drew Scheier told NBC Philadelphia Thursday.
The FBI is reportedly investigating, as is the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office; the Inky is reporting that federal prosecutors have issued subpoenas. Buckle yourselves in, folks: this thing's gonna get a whole lot weirder before it's over.
[...] For readers just tuning in, here the background: In February the Robbins family of Penn Valley sued the Lower Merion School District after it discovered MacBooks issued to all 2,620 students in the district were equipped with Web cams that could be turned on remotely by school officials. How did they found out? Because the Robbins’ 15-year-old son Blake was called into a meeting with the school vice principal, during which he was (they say) shown an image of himself at home working on his school supplied laptop, and questioned about possible inappropriate behavior. According to one report, the school apparently thought Blake was popping pills when he was really just eating candy. [...]
[...] According to one report, the school apparently thought Blake was popping pills when he was really just eating candy [...]
"Hey Blake ask your dad what your Grandmother SELMA found in his closet? When he was your around your age." - hey smitty, she found what your grandma put in there
Hey Blake ask your dad what your Grandmother SELMA found in his closet? When he was your around your age.
There is no indication that the school ever thought the laptop had been stolen. No one even claims that. This reeks too much of Big Brother. This is an Orwellian nightmare come true. We all know what kids with raging hormones do in their rooms. To know that a high school administrator might be watching would scare the hell out of me! If I discovered one of them watching my son or daughter in his/her room I would scream and, you can rest assured, sue them beyond avarice!
Meanwhile, there's an ad for Nana's Naughty Knickers at the top of the page of this blog.
It amazes me that these administrators had the gall to do this and were so stupid they admitted it to Blake. These people make hefty salaries...why? The are obviously too dumb to be working at any school.
I go to lower merion
[...] High School Assistant Principal Lindy Matsko to confront him in the first place. No surprise: It's hilarious. School officials thought they had captured an image of Robbins holding illicit pills, plotting to [...]
how is it the school district's responsibility to investigate supposed drug use in a child's home? how is it o.k. for them to spy on a child in his home?
[...] A picture of some candy, if they are to believed. Great. Some IT technician, proud of his leet skilz, spots a Mike and Ike candy and reports the student to the vice[principal for drug dealing. [...]
Really, we have to start testing teachers compentency,and discontinue any education for profit. Civics is no longer taught or understood.
gk-"Really, we have to start testing teachers compentency,and discontinue any education for profit." Really, you are writing this at 4am? Maybe you should get some more of that FREE education so you can either get a better job, or a job at all! For-profit educators are held to much higher standards and rarely have UNIONS keeping their sorry asses in the system for decades. If they dont perform, they are simply GONE!
Really, was my previous comment too much for the City Paper to handle? Too conservative for a liberal, union loving,rag and their apparently idiotic, know nothing followers. I would have thought otherwise by the tone of this article, but I guess I was wrong to attack stupidity. I'll watch to see how long this one stands and post it on my blog.
How long has it been since Halloween ?? NOBODY buys Mike and Ike candies. You only get them from folks who don't want you back trick or treating next year. All the Mike and Ikes have been eaten already. You won;t see them again until next November.
[...] the school district be able to protect their investment? Well, the reason this all came up was that a kid in the district was caught eating Mike-n-Ikes at home. The principal called him in for eating candy and, presumably, this school watching this [...]
Before everyone starts jumping on the school for spying, how bout this kid taking responsibility for "STEALING" the computer which is why the camera was activated, and has anyone seen the footage, because I have a real hard time believing that any principle, vice principle, tech person etc... wouldn't be able to tell a mike and ike from a pill. Something tells me that this kid did in fact have drugs. The proof is in the footage. And wtf is up with parents, what, anytime anything happens now they have to run off and sue? Their kid is a douche and so are they, and we wonder why kids aren't learning anymore.
This is why we are choosing to home school our child. Teachers are people too, and it seems like everyone is going postal to their own varying degree. Expect more parents to home school because of increased insane incidents like this one.
How stupid can the kids be? I thought that all of the younger generation was supposed to be technologically savvy? Apparently not. Yay, free computer! Uh huh. You know that the school district makes the kids sign user agreements, agreements amongst which are warnings about appropriate usage. If a student gets caught messing up, it is that little moron's own fault. Duh.
[...] the school district be able to protect their investment? Well, the reason this all came up was that a kid in the district was caught eating Mike-n-Ikes at home. The principal called him in for eating candy and, presumably, this school watching this [...]
Many people are insinuating that the claim that only IT people could use the system was a falsehood. This may or may not be the case. That aside, the laptop belonged to the student. The school has some reserve laptops for students who can't afford to pay whatever is involved in owning one; however, Blake's laptop is apparently his. When asked if Blake's laptop was reported missing, school officials declined to comment. Additionally, Blake is still using the laptop today(now that school officials have deactivated the spyware). This all seems strong evidence that he owned the laptop. I think you might sue if this happened to you. The laptops were given as a gift, essentially. they were free to the students except for some insurance and other fees. But they were trojan horses! They took pictures of students in their bedrooms. This is serious for god's sake. The computers were not stolen. I think YOU, sir, need to consider the fact that the news is...dun dun dun....ACCURATE.
something
So you are saying that the kid OWNED the laptop ? That they are GIFTS?? I do not think that is at all accurate, my friend.
Yes, Mike and Ikes are available all year long. We have several stores here that have them, and they're also sold in concessions at the movie theater. It's not a huge shock to me that he might have been eating them. My husband and son love them, and we get large bags of the candies at warehouse stores. A 6 pound bag can last the good part of a year. That said, a 1.3 megapixel video camera on a laptop, and no, macbook webcams are NOT better than that, can't identify clearly what the child has in his hand. It would be thrown out as evidence in a court of law. That said, children don't have rights in this country, do they? I recall being a kid, and pretty much being told that until I was legally an adult and able to vote, I wasn't even a human being. This country continues to support the idea that kids are pets. When will it stop? And how far will we allow the government and schools to take all parental rights? Might as well ship them directly from the hospital to training camps if we're going to allow them to punish kids for activities not taking place during school or on school grounds.
The teachers and staff are going to learn a very, very tough lesson, in federal prison. How about that? :)
[...] Blake Robbins' crime? Popping Mike-and-Ike's, he says. [...]
[...] Webcam on the 16 year old’s free Mac laptop caught him in February, popping what he says were Mike and Ike’s candie. (Fruit-flavored little sugar bombs shaped like pills and made in the [...]
[...] Matsko thought Blake was popping pills. According to Robbins, he was merely eating candy: Mike-N-Ikes. (A classic gateway drug — before you know it, he’ll be deep into Good-N-Plenty and [...]
The laptop was stolen he did not pay the insurance fee to have it. If there are picture of any other kid who did pay the fee to have the computer. The kid who paid to have the computer may have a case if they weren't notified of the ability of the school to activate the webcam. But the kid who didn't pay the fee's to have it really stole it. Therefore he does not need to be notified, he shouldn't have had it.
So ... Now the school admits to taking over 58,000 images. And can't figure out why it took some of them. Or who ordered it. And it also triggered the spying on 10 teachers. Creepy.
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