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Philadelphia . A suburban Philadelphia school district used school-issued laptop Web cams to spy on students at home, potentially catching them and their families in compromising situations, a family claims in a federal lawsuit.

Officials at the school district can activate Web cams on the computers without students’ knowledge or permission, the lawsuit alleges. Plaintiffs Michael and Holly Robbins suspect the cameras captured students and family members as they undressed and in other embarrassing situations, according to the suit.

The school district could not immediately confirm whether it has the ability to activate the computer Web cams remotely, spokesman Doug Young said.

“We can categorically state that we are and have always been committed to protecting the privacy of our students,” he said.

Tom Halperin, a 15-year-old sophomore from Wynnewood, said students are “pretty disgusted” and have started putting masking tape over their computer Web cams and microphones.

“This is just bogus,” Halperin said. “I just think it’s really despicable that they have the ability to just watch me all the time.”

He noted that his class recently read “1984,” the George Orwell classic that coined the term “Big Brother.”

The accusations amount to potentially illegal electronic wiretapping, said Witold J. Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which is not involved in the case.

“School officials cannot, any more than police, enter into the home either electronically or physically without an invitation or a warrant,” Walczak said.

The affluent district prides itself on its technology initiatives, which include giving laptops to each of the approximately 2,300 students at its two high schools.

The Robbinses said they learned of the alleged Web-cam images when Lindy Matsko, an assistant high school principal, told their son that school officials thought he had engaged in improper behavior at home. The behavior was not specified in the suit.

Matsko “cited as evidence a photograph from the Web cam embedded in minor plaintiff’s personal laptop issued by the school district,” the lawsuit states.

Matsko later confirmed to Michael Robbins that the school had the ability to activate the Web cams remotely, according to the lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday and which seeks class-action status.



Associated Press