School Caught Using Webcams To Spy On Students...At Home

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phil

phil

They just wanted to make sure that the students were being honest.


.....especially when changing.
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
Ninja'd!

My question is: How many people had to think this was acceptable for it to happen? I wouldn't think setting up something like this would be a one person job. How big is this group of sick minds?
 
LittleSin

LittleSin

I believe that you can convince a group of reasonable people to do anything if it's "for the children". They probably thought "what if there's pervert amongst us?" or "would that violate the students privacy?" but in the end didn't anyone because the didn't want to insinuate that there COULD be a pedo there or that they wouldn't be responsible with this 'power'.
 
Dave

Dave

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Why else would someone turn on the webcams of the kids? You note they don't say the genders of the kids on which they spied?
 
phil

phil

What also gets to me is that what uncovered the whole thing was when a student was disciplined for improper behavior at home.

Now, I knew that faculty at schools were control freaks, but to try and enforce a set of rules while the students are in their own homes is just going wayyyyyy too far. The home is not the place for any school official to have any power whatsoever. I swear high schools are being treated more like prisons every day.
 
Fun Size

Fun Size

What blows my mind is that they were one badly timed snapshot away from a Chris Hanson visit. I mean, did not one person bring up that this was a possibility?
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
As we don't necessarily have any records on who they viewed, I think this already IS a Chris Hanson moment.
 
Shakey

Shakey

phil said:
What also gets to me is that what uncovered the whole thing was when a student was disciplined for improper behavior at home.

Now, I knew that faculty at schools were control freaks, but to try and enforce a set of rules while the students are in their own homes is just going wayyyyyy too far. The home is not the place for any school official to have any power whatsoever. I swear high schools are being treated more like prisons every day.
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Schools are doing this way too often. Hell, they even suspended a kid for being critical of a teacher on facebook. The kid didn't do it at school, and didn't use a schools computer.
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
Fun Size said:
What blows my mind is that they were one badly timed snapshot away from a Chris Hanson visit. I mean, did not one person bring up that this was a possibility?
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From the Associated Press article:
"The lawsuit alleges the cameras captured images of Harriton High School students and their families as they undressed and in other compromising situations."

From a comment on Slashdot:
Here's the full list of claims they're making:

Electronic Communications Privacy Act - interception of communications
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act - exceeding authorized access
Stored Communication Act - more unauthorized access
Civil Rights Act - Invasion of Privacy
4th Amendment - Invasion of Privacy
Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Act - wiretapping
Pennsylvania common law (1) - Invasion of Privacy

(1) footnote reads: \\"Should discovery disclose that the Defendants are in possession of images constituting child pornography [...] Plaintiffs will amend this Complaint to assert a cause of action thereunder.\\"
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K

Kitty Sinatra

Dave said:
As we don't necessarily have any records on who they viewed, I think this already IS a Chris Hanson moment.
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"we" should have the records on who they potentially viewed, though, since the laptops would've been signed out by the students. It seems likely to me that any court would find that they were all spied on.
 
phil

phil

Didn't anyone question why they had webcams to start with? I mean, a webcam would have made them more expensive, and would be pointless since they're supposed to be used for just schoolwork and research only.

It really makes me wonder if this was the plan the whole time. They didn't care about helping to educate these kids, they just wanted to dictate what they do at home and maybe jerk it to the cheer leading squad on the weekends and this was the best cover up.
 
Dei

Dei

phil said:
Didn't anyone question why they had webcams to start with? I mean, a webcam would have made them more expensive, and would be pointless since they're supposed to be used for just schoolwork and research only.

It really makes me wonder if this was the plan the whole time. They didn't care about helping to educate these kids, they just wanted to dictate what they do at home and maybe jerk it to the cheer leading squad on the weekends and this was the best cover up.
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Honestly, when you buy laptops these days a lot of them come with the webcam built into the monitor and isn't really an "option" persay.
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

Dei;342923][QUOTE=phil said:
Didn't anyone question why they had webcams to start with? I mean, a webcam would have made them more expensive, and would be pointless since they're supposed to be used for just schoolwork and research only.

It really makes me wonder if this was the plan the whole time. They didn't care about helping to educate these kids, they just wanted to dictate what they do at home and maybe jerk it to the cheer leading squad on the weekends and this was the best cover up.
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Honestly, when you buy laptops these days a lot of them come with the webcam built into the monitor and isn't really an "option" persay.[/QUOTE]

the problem is not that the computer had the web-cam, but that the school installed software to turn it on and watch when the kids would not realize it.
 
Thread Necromancer

Thread Necromancer

It is shit like this that truely makes me fearfull to have my children in public schools.

I've sat here for ten minutes trying to type more about this story but I'm just to bloody fucking pissed off to be coherant.
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
Dei said:
Honestly, when you buy laptops these days a lot of them come with the webcam built into the monitor and isn't really an "option" persay.
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I doubt a webcam adds much to the price of a laptop these days, it might cost more to find or special order models without webcams, assuming that there aren't educational models specifically built without certain features that might distract from educational use. Of course it's doubtful that many people think of the problems with webcams, and only think of the wow factor of "we could video conference with a sister classroom in another country!"
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

But aren't you going to be a teacher? and be another cog in the machine that grinds up kids and spits out conformity.

I've not learned new anything about education since I saw "The Wall"
 
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