School Officials Accused of Spying on Students at Home

Imagine being called into the high school assistant principal’s office on an ordinary school day, where you’re chastised for using illegal drugs. You’ve never done drugs before, but when you ask why you’re being accused, you’re shown a webcam photo of you eating Mike and Ikes at home. Maybe they confused the Mike and Ikes for pills, but your first question is how did they even get that webcam photo of you? By using the remote webcam controls on the laptop they gave you at the beginning of the school year.

This scary scene is exactly what a student from Harriton High School in Philidephia says happened to him, and his parents have filed a lawsuit against the school for invasion of privacy. The school admits to having remote access to the webcams, but says they were only used in the case that a laptop was stolen to try and identify the thief. The school acknowledged that they have activated cameras without knowledge of the students, but claim they only activated the 42 cameras of laptops that had been stolen. But what about the assistant principal’s accusations? Regardless of the truth that is uncovered in the investigation, students are creeped-out, and officials have taken some action. Students have put tape over their cameras and some have been wearing t-shirts mocking the administration. The administration reported that the tracking system was deactivated after the claims, but the damage may have already been done.

There’s been much debate about where the responsibilities and jurisdiction of a school begin and end. It’s reasonable that a student could have been reprimanded for using illegal drugs, if, of course, he was actually doing them, and if the information had not been obtained by illegal means. In no circumstances should it be okay for any person in power to be able to spy on anyone, particularly a high school student. The assistant principal in question claims they was never even any disciplinary action, but I wonder what would prompt a 15-year-old to completely make up such a significant claim. The school did admit to activating the cameras without the knowledge of anyone else, and in my mind, for them to even just have that power is too much.

The family claims that the webcam spying went even beyond just accusing the student of using drugs, and may have caught “images of minors, and their parents or friends, in compromising or embarrassing positions, including, but not limited to, in various stages of dress or undress.” Clearly, if the student’s allegations are correct, the school has seriously violated privacy rights, and it opens up the possibility that the other 42 activated cameras weren’t used just for stolen laptops. It’s a scary possibility to think that people could be watched without knowing it, and even scarier that photos taken while spying could be used for disciplinary action. They claim to have installed the remote camera controls for safety reasons, but it appears that safety may come at a high cost.

How do you feel about the school’s alleged actions? Should the remote camera controls ever have been in place? What should be done to keep rights violations like this from happening again?