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Archive: February, 2010
Lara Coleman here with your morning fix:
A NATO air strike on a convoy of three vehicles kills more than two dozen civilians in southern Afghanistan.We are winning hearts and minds.
Lufthansa pilots begin their four-day strike, canceling 800 flights, in an effort to negotiate pay and job security.
President Obama is proposing a new health care plan that would limit extreme health care increases or rollbacks. The proposal will be revealed later today. Republicans will oppose it, because that's what they do.
The United States hockey team scores another great Olympic upset, besting Canada on its home ice 5-3 on Sunday, and advancing the to the quarterfinals.
Three pit-bull attacks in Philadelphia have caused multiple severe injuries and death. The latest attack occurred after 11 a.m. yesterday and left a 10 year-old boy in critical condition.
A 2 year old girl is abandoned in a Newark gas station. The police found her yesterday, but have so far been unable to get any information about her identity.
Philly legendary recording studio, Gamble and Huff's, caught fire Sunday morning. The fire left extensive damage and the cause has not yet been determined.
The number of marijuana users over age 50 has increased from 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent, as the boomer generation ages.
The EPA plans to spend $2.2 billon over the next five years in order to clean up the pollution that has been marring the Great Lakes, and stop the invasive species, including the Asian carp, that have been causing problems for native plants and animals.
Best place for beginner to start Yoga?
Trying to find a good place to go and start Yoga for the first time. Hopefully on the more affordable side if possible?
Are you a member of Facebook?
Askadelphia runs on Facebook Connect.
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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| Courtesy of Zazzle |
OMG.
(h/t Critical Mass matriarch Molly Eichel)
Thank you for featuring this - I am the designer of the shirt and this is a dream come true. I <3 parody!
Editor's note: We heard that PETA was staging its "Naked women in public protesting the circus" thing yesterday, and dispatched intern Tom Tiballi and his camera down to cover it. He files this report:
âI think I see a nipple!â says one passerby at the sight of a PETA protest held Feb. 18 on the corner of Market and Ninth streets. The circus is coming to town next week, and predictably enough, PETA isn't happy. The animal rights group has already successfully pushed Ashton, Pa.'s Nuemann University into dropping its sponsorship of the Ringling Brothers' events at the Wachovia Center Feb. 24-28. Now, in an effort to convince you not to go, a young lady will freeze her naked ass off in the name of publicity.
It was billed as a strip-in, but from what I saw, there was no actual stripping. But, amid a group of about 10 girls helping out with all the signage, I did find a young woman, topless, painted bright orange with black tiger stripes and locked in a cage
âWe are trying to get people to realize that tigers and other animals used in these circuses are caged for most of their lives, because animals can't do it themselves,â Amanda Fortino tells me. Fortino wears a bright red toque to keep her from catching her death on this blustery Philadelphia afternoon, and, as a campaign coordinator for PETA, is overseeing the whole event.
A young lady hands me some âinformation," a series of glossy photos of sad elephants, and elephants batting sad puppy eyes at me has always been a big chink in my macho hombre armor. âShe's fine,â the same young lady replies to someone who has shown concern for the caged pussycat woman, shivering in a dog crate, âas long as you pass along the information, that's what she's there for.â
I am just one of many guys snapping photos of the scene, but am the only one who can bear the cold blowing up Market for more than a brief, passing moment. âIs she naked?!â asks one enthusiastic teenage boy, who presumably might have been able to tell for himself had he not been skipping Biology class at the time. âI say we let all the circus animals free to run through the city!â His friend chimes in, while a third whips out his camera phone to get proof of how much more awesome their afternoon was than whatever their bro's were doing in school.
âSome mastermind at PETA came up with the tiger in a cage and we have been doing this for years,â Fortino says of the caged-animal motif. âIt's an eye-catching visual that brings people over, so they can get the information.â
I'VE SEEN FIRST HAND WHAT THESE SO CALL PETA PEOPLE CAN DO AND BELIEVE ME IT'S NOT PRETTY, IT'S DARN CLOSE TO EVIL. THESE MIS INFORMED FOLLOWERS OF PETA NEED TO REALLY CHECK INTO THE THINGS THAT PETA HAS DONE AND WILL CONTINUE TO DO IF NOT STOPPED.
I just got off the phone with Doug Young, the spokesperson for Lower Merion School District. (If you haven't been keeping up on this totally insane story, get caught up here and here.) The gist is this: Lower Merion student Blake Robbins filed a class action-suit against the district for allegedly spying on him via a webcam, which was attached to one of the school's laptops that they allow students to take home. According to Robbins and his lawyers, they became aware of this when assistant principal Lindy Matsko "informed [Robbins] that the school district was of the belief that [Robbins] was engaged in improper behavior in his home, and cited as evidence a photograph from the webcam embedded in [Robbins'] personal laptop issued by the school district."
Yesterday, the district issued a statement claiming that the laptops contain a security feature that is utilized only when a laptop is reported stolen or missing. Here's how it works, apparently: It takes a still image of the laptop's operator and the operator's screen, and, the district swears to God, that's it.
OK, so back to my interview with Young, in which he admits that the school district has used the webcam "security feature" more than once, and that they're not alone in doing so:
City Paper: Has the school district used this security feature before?
Doug Young: Yes, a handful of times. We only used it when a laptop was reported stolen, lost or missing.
CP: Did Blake Robbins steal the laptop?
DY: I can't refer to the specifics of the case, but I can say that the feature would not be activated unless it was reported stolen. A student or family member would have to report that it was stolen for us to use it.
CP: Why not just use an IP address to find the laptop?
DY: That's a good question, I don't know why. I'll have to get back to you about that. I can say that the software feature isn't just utilized in this school district. It's utilized by other school districts and organizations.
CP: Which school districts?
DY: I'll have to get back to you on that.
CP: Why use this feature, considering its potential for abuse?
DY: There's no question that the district had a responsibility to clearly indicate what the feature was and how it would be utilized to the students and parents. That wasn't done, and that was a mistake. We take the situation very seriously. The safety and privacy of students is our top priority. We recognize the concerns that are out there, and we need to conduct a full review of the policies, procedures and process that made this happen. That being said, we intend to defend ourselves vigorously and intend to win.
CP: Does the district plan to use the feature in the future?
DY: It's been disabled, and we wouldn't use the feature in the future unless parents and students were first made aware.
CP: Are the people who are responsible for using this feature being terminated?
DY: I can't speak to that.
This story made http://detentionslip.org ! Check it out for all the crazy haedlines from our schools.
The people who made the decision to incorporate this feature and subsequently use on school provided laptops to spy on students, are as guilty as any peeping tom, burglar or pervert of child pornography. They need fired and prosecuted as insurance that no other district will ever attempt this subversive maneuver against those citizens who pay their salaries.
Maybe the more specific details will be released later. What if this kid is just being a jerk?
The link I gave isn't my website...just a blog I read...catch up on all the rest of Lower Merion School District BIG PROBLEMS ...EPA, Racism, another date in Baylson's Court on Monday @ 4 p.m...it's all good..fire them all and take back Savedoff's pension - he started this..look into McGinley's days at other districts....
So what if the kid is being a jerk. Are you saying that if the kids a jerk that give the school the right to spy on him and his parents and family in his own home. The ability the school had to monitor the webcams was being kept secret and only came out after the 1 boy was busted for something (someone from the same school says it was smoking pot in his room...but this is the web so take that with a grain of salt) First I would like to point out it is NOT the schools job, nor is it in the schools power to spy on students at home. Second What are the chances that they just so happen to look in on his webcam when he was doing whatever. How many other webcam were being MONITORED. Im sure that NONE of the people monitoring the webcams EVER happen to see some of those cute little high school girls getting undressed or even having sex. After all that would be illegal and we know the school would never over step its bounds. I say an investigation by the FBI is in order here including a forensic scan of all of the computers involved to see if there are any pictures of any of these students on them in stages of undress or worse. And if the FBI finds any the people responsible for those pics and the people responsible for setting up the system that allowed this to happen be Punished 1. Fines 2. Jail and/or Prison time 3. Be listed on the Sexual Offenders Registry (if peeing in public is enough to land you on the list this sure as heck is too) 4 The School Board should be SUED
Come on people! Read between the lines. The kid lied to his parents. He told the district the laptop was stolen and when he got in trouble he told his parents he never said that! They must have activated the security feature and saw him sitting in front of it and that is why he was hauled in to the vp - because they had proof that he was still in possession of his "stolen" laptop!
Ummm, Jim - before you sound off maybe you should know what is going on? The school board is already listed as defendants in the filed lawsuit.
Amy, numerous other students who were interviewed reported the webcam activation LED on their laptops went on randomly. I hope you don't want to be a lawyer when you grow up, although you could be a republican judge!
The school told the kids the green light was just a "glitch"- They have continually lied about this story since it broke and have had to come back and say, we were wrong. We do not spy on kids well unless they stole the lap top this is the only incident well except the 41 other times we did it The webcam is automatic well except the software we purposely installed for this ONE purpose the Asst Principal did nothing wrong and never took this photo. well she was just trying to help this family out... Guess what, it's not the schools place to track down criminals. If they suspected that a laptop was stolen they needed to file a police report and let the police go through proper channels to obtain a search warrant and then they could activate the security feature. And he wasn't smoking pot, he was eating mike and ikes candy and the asst principal thought he was taking pills.
How long did they know they could do this? How many teachers and admins logged on to watch these kids like cheap entertainment? How many teacher room conversations were going on about these kids without them knowing they were being spied on? What about charges for watching these kids in their own bedrooms? If any of these kids were getting dressed and/or undressed in their own rooms would this fall under child pornopraghy?
[...] 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 [...]
Informing the parents might have allowed the parents to put protections in place (no computers in the bedroom, tape over the webcam), but no parent can possibly consent to the school filming their child covertly in the privacy of their bedrooms. That would the parents subject to prosecution as well, not exonerate the school district. The activities of the kid are irrelevant. What ever he said or did is irrelevant, the school wronged him by taking a picture of him in his bedroom. The school has wronged all of the students by setting up covert surveillance in every child's computer, whether it was activated or not. The law, and the courts, need to show very clearly that covert surveillance by the school of minors at home is not ok. If the courts do not do this, then they will have handed a mighty set of legal keys to any pedophile who is not yet identified as such to covertly spy on children in bedrooms.
[...] mansion, doesn't 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 [...]
From personal experience being previously victimized (in a similar fashion) by the government for being on a political hit list, I find this story to be long overdue and welcome. This happens frequently, you only heard about it because they got caught- now they're in damage control mode. They got caught because they made the mistake of thinking they had so much authority they could actually bring note to what the boy was doing in his bedroom - that's a lot of nerve and perceived authority. They do it both for control and entertainment. The cable companies and government give them the legal means and the tools (thank you Patriot Act). Not many people know how deeply entrenched this behavior is- I do; the technology also goes beyond just a camera in a Mac. We live in a country where to get spied on, you don't have to be a criminal, you just have to satisfy their control/entertainment desires. This case is just one blip on the radar screen that got noticed. And it will get worse, as our society becomes more dumbed- down and complacent, the behavior will likewise escalate. When you watch your cable TV, do you ever get the feeling your being watched? The technology is there and being grossly abused.
Good readers of the Clogosphere,
Little story about the best-laid plans and whatnot.
I'll be out of the office next week on a sorely needed respite from the snow and drudgery that's become this Philadelphia winter. The girlfriend and I had been hoping to skip the country for a long getaway for, oh, a year or so now. We'd thought about New Zealand ⦠and Spain ⦠and Peru. All of which were enticing but, to varying degrees, beyond our budgets. So, on January 9, 2010, booked a week-long trip to ⦠The Dominican Republic. Of course, three days later, a massive earthquake struck the DR's Hispaniola neighbors Haiti, causing one of the great disasters of our time.
We were, of course, concerned about how to proceed. Would it be safe to go? Would we be able to help or volunteer? Should we cancel our plans?
What we found out was that life was continuing pretty much as usual in the largely un-affected DR and, despite our best efforts, no organization wanted volunteers of the "less-than-10-years-of-disaster-relief-experience" variety, let alone of the "no-disaster-relief-experience-at-all" variety.
So we're going on vacation. To the Dominican Republic. (We'll be sure to buckle our seatbelts.) At a time that could be conservatively considered "tenuous."
Not sure how much we'll be able to report from the trip (you can follow along on Twitter, provided my Android gets any data service), though you can expect a full account upon our return.
And if anyone's got any recommendations in the DR â we'll be splitting our time between Santo Domingo's Zona Colonial and the Samaná peninsula town of Las Terrenas â please post them here, or Tweet 'em to @beegee73.
And if you haven't yet given any money to Haiti relief, or if you haven't since the quake but were wondering if you should, please consider donating. I suggest Doctors Without Borders, but there are plenty of other worthwhile causes out there as well.
i pretty much did your trip this past july. we took a guagua back and forth which was both exciting and terrifying. at one point, i really thought we were going to have the push the bus up the mountain. getting to las terrenas was fine, but they charged us extra on the way back because we were two white girls. don't be afraid of the montoconchos in las terrenas, they're the only way to get around. and the el limon waterfall was pretty cool, plus santi's crew makes a good lunch: http://www.samana.net/santi-berca.html
Lara Coleman here with your (mid-) morning fix:
Iran has created a new missile destroyer that can carry 120 people and is equipped with surface-to-air missiles, torpedoes, and modern naval cannons. Commence panicking.
Evan Lysacek becomes the first American to win the gold for male figure skating in the Olympics since 1988. Also, U-S-A U-S-A!
A man stole an ambulance from the Albert Einstein Medical Center yesterday and proceeded to go for a joyride on the Schuylkill Expressway during morning rush hour, driving recklessly until he was arrested at gunpoint.
Joesph Stack crashed a small single-engine airplane into the side of an IRS field office in Austin yesterday because he was angered over tax issues. Nude centerfold/tea-bagger champion/US Sen. Scott Brown sympathizes, sort of.
In Uniontown, Pa., at about 3:30 a.m., a 57-year-old man jumped on to the hood of his girlfriend's car (while she was driving it) during an argument, wearing only underwear. The police found drug paraphernalia in the car.
Northern Illinois University was briefly shut down after a student was shot near a residence hall, the students were told to attend class shortly after.
A French court has convicted nearly a dozen people of exporting fake Pinot Noir from France to the United States in an organized fraud. So far, Claude Courset has received the harshest sentence of a six-month prison sentence and a $61,000 fine.
Two American missionaries, Laura Silsby and Charisa Coulter, still face trial in Haiti for allegedly attempting to kidnap 33 children from Haiti. Coulter and Silsby maintain that they were only there to help the children. Eight others were released yesterday.
President Obama met with the Dalai Lama yesterday to have a private chat in order to show support for human rights without causing friction between the United States and China.
Snowpacalypse 4? Not gonna happen.
As a few of our astute Cloggers have pointed out, the Lower Merion School District issued a statement yesterday at 5:30 p.m. in response to allegations that the district had spied on a student via a webcam:
Dear LMSD Community,
Last year, our district became one of the first school systems in the United States to provide laptop computers to all high school students. This initiative has been well received and has provided educational benefits to our students.
The District is dedicated to protecting and promoting student privacy. The laptops do contain a security feature intended to track lost, stolen and missing laptops. This feature has been deactivated effective today.
The following questions and answers help explain the background behind the initial decision to install the tracking-security feature, its limited use, and next steps.
⢠Why are webcams installed on student laptops?
The Apple computers that the District provides to students come equipped with webcams and students are free to utilize this feature for educational purposes.
⢠Why was the remote tracking-security feature installed?
Laptops are a frequent target for theft in schools and off school property. The security feature was installed to help locate a laptop in the event it was reported lost, missing or stolen so that the laptop could be returned to the student.
⢠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.
⢠Do you anticipate reactivating the tracking-security feature?
Not without express written notification to all students and families.
We regret if this situation has caused any concern or inconvenience among our students and families. We are reviewing the matter and will provide an additional update as soon as information becomes available.
Sincerely,
Dr. Christopher McGinley
Superintendent
The school district and Blake Robbins' lawyer have not returned our calls.
RELATED: Dept. of Holy Shit: Big Brother is watching, kids (now, with an update!)
Is the school denying completely that the incident occurred, or are they trying to imply that the kid who complained stole the laptop which took his picture?
So, if the computer was not reported lost or stolen, then why did they take a picture of the teen? The explanation stinks.
It has already been disclosed by the school that they have done this not one time but 42 times. Also, according to http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=7288199 The students family claims the "improper behavior" of their son was a photo of him and Mike and Ikes candy, but the principal thought he was doing/selling pills. Even if the kid stole the laptop- like the school and is inferring, it would be a police matter. You cannot violate someone's else's rights because you suspect them of stealing. They should have alerted the police and had them get a warrant.
[...] story is everywhere (Huffington Post, Boing Boing, New Zealand Herald, CNET, Philadelphia City Paper etc). A school district is being sued for spying on its 2300 students (and their families) at home [...]
i feel the school district has a right to protect its property. maybe they could have handled this thing differently, by asking students and parents to sign a form stating that they understood the web cams could be activated by the district to help them find lost or stolen computers. If the parents and students chose not to sign, then no computer for them. We live in a litigious society and the school should know better before doing something like this, especially since they cater to a group of people that like to stand behind lawyers rather then face the music cause by their own twisted sense of entitlement.
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| Jaime Block |
| Before. |
Snowmageddon: February 10th. Today: February 18th.
The streets are finally pretty much clear. (Think the specter of the next storm helped at all?)
Perhaps everything is best gauged by the final words of the venerable Vernon Odom's previous piece on Philly's Phase 2 snow removal: $12 million. Twelve Million Dollars. That's what Philadelphia's snow removal tab for this winter is reaching. That definitely paints a picture of the sheer scope of this situation/dilemma.
Is it possible, though, that the cost could have been kept down with better prevention?
I don't know. All I know is I have no place left to shovel the snow from my sidewalk. Please make it stop.
Personally I didn't see the full scope of some of today's efforts until I saw some shots from a friend. Here are some pictures of the snow removal effort at Webster Street. I had no idea backhoes were involved in the clearing of the small streets. Makes sense though.
More pics after the jump.
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| Shane Carr |
h/t Shane
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