School IT allegedly took "thousands" of pics in webcam case

by Jacqui Cheng

Remember the lawsuit filed by the family of 15-year-old Blake Robbins against the school district that spied on him at home via webcam? The latest news comes from a motion filed by the Robbins family claiming that the school took more than 400 photos of Blake in his room—some while sleeping and others while he was "partially undressed."

According to the motion filed Thursday, the Robbins family said that it was only aware of a handful of images being captured at the time the lawsuit was filed back in February. Now, thanks to the court order asking the district to preserve evidence on all school-issued computers, the family has discovered more than 400 photos of Blake alone, not to mention the "thousands" more taken of other students in their homes. In addition to these photos of students doing private things in their rooms, the school district also allegedly took screenshots of IM conversations they were having with friends.

Even worse, the IT staff responsible for implementing and monitoring the student laptops seemingly viewed the whole thing as entertainment. The motion cites e-mails sent between staffers—one says the pictures were "like a little [Lower Merion School District] soap opera. Carol Cafiero, one of the administrators responsible for the program responded "I know. I love it!" Cafiero is one of two staffers who have been placed on administrative leave.

The school district has always argued that it only turned on the webcams in the event that a laptop appeared to be lost or stolen, but the Robbins argue that there were numerous cases in which the school spied on students despite knowing exactly who had the laptops—sometimes, students absentmindedly forgot to return their computers on time or failed to pay the $55 insurance fee in a timely manner. The latter was the case for Blake; the school says it initially spied on him because he failed to pay the fee, though there appears to be no explanation as to why the IT staff watched him for at least two full weeks before he ended up getting disciplined for "improper behavior" at home.

Understandably, the court has issued an order barring any of the 400+ photographs or screenshots from being made available to anyone but the lawyers.

Even if you think the school district is within its rights to install monitoring software on school laptops, the IT staff appear to have gotten the whole district into a hairy situation by turning laptop security into their own real-life high school "soap opera."