Friday, February 19, 2010

Beware of Geeks Bearing Gifts

Lower Merion School District officials brag that they give every one of their 1,800 high-schoolers laptop computers to "ensure that all students have 24/7 access to school-based resources."

Instead, they ensured they got a 24/7 sneak peek into students’ private lives by secretly monitoring webcams embedded in the laptops to spy on teens and their families at home, according to a federal, class-action lawsuit filed this week in Philadelphia. [More]

Teaching children to be inmates instead of citizens, of course...it's all part of a plan.

And surprise, surprise--the government "gives" you something and there are strings attached.

Me, I'm hoping an analysis of what they spied on will disclose some sexual activity, and they can be prosecuted for viewing child porn.

If you really want to be disgusted, look at the poll results where about 6% either support it or aren't morally developed enough to object.

[Via Ed M]

9 comments:

zach said...

People have different situations, but if possible, any moral, freedom loving person would home school their children.

Mike H said...

If that reprimand was for the kid masturbating, then I'd say they could boil the school in legal oil.

JMHO Not a lawyer but willing to play one on tv stage or film.

The decypher word is 'dessert' byw lol.

jon said...

reminds me of the story of two buses.

Qi Ji Guang said...

What if the students all found out about the webcams and placed masking tape over them?

Then the school's million dollar surveillance projects goes right down the sewer.

Thats why I DON'T trust ANY public official whenever they say something is "for our benefits".

straightarrow said...

My question: where is the criminal investigation? There was no mention of one in the article. This is more than lawsuit territory this is crime. We pay people to enforce and adjudicate the law. They always seem to be absent though when an agency of the state is the criminal.

Next question: where are the armed citizens taking the District Attorney out of his office and tarring and feathering him. That is a fine old Philadelphia tradition.

anhourofwolves said...

Denninger is worth a read on this

Ed said...

The latest word is that the school district only activates the camera to take a picture of the user of the laptop and captures a screen shot of the display for transmission back to the school district when the laptop is reported lost or stolen.

So what happens if the serial numbers are transposed by the school or a student is issued a laptop previously reported lost or stolen?

word verification is "comfi" - NO!!!

stragitharrow said...

If that were true,there would have been no reprimand for a student's activity in his own home. A Lie on it's face.

fidelity_axiom said...

Hey everyone,

You can reach the school district admin building at:
301 East Montgomery Avenue
Ardmore, Pa 19003-3338
Phone (610) 645-1800

Lynn Matsko
Assistant Principal
Harriton High School
610-658-3953
matskol@lmsd.org

Steven Kline
Principal
Harriton High School
610-658-3970
klines@lmsd.org

Lauren Marcuson
Assistant Principal
Harriton High School
610-658-3955
marcusl@lmsd.org

George Frazier
Director Information Systems (distict)
610-645-1925
frazier@lmsd.org

There's a whole score of network admins too. If anything illegal took place, it would probably be the Network Admins (considering the administrative rights one would need to trigger the webcam).

You can find them here:
http://www.lmsd.org/sections/contact/default.php?t=pages&p=staff_ad&menu=staff