[real-eyes] School escapes charges in Webcam spying case

From: Steven Clark <kcpadfoot@xxxxxxxxx>
To: real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 12:49:26 -0500
CNET News
School escapes charges in Webcam spying case
August 18, 2010 10:41 AM PDT
Posted by
Lance Whitney
A Pennsylvania school that was caught secretly snapping photos of 
students via laptop
Webcams will not face criminal charges in the case.
Triggered by
complaints and a civil suit
  by Harriton High School student Blake Robbins in February that he was 
photographed
at home without his knowledge, the FBI and local officials launched an 
investigation
to determine if the Lower Merion School District illegally misused the 
Webcams.
But federal and local prosecutors looking into the incident were unable 
to prove
criminal intent on the part of school employees and therefore could not 
prosecute
the case, according to U.S. Attorney Zane Memeger.
"After a thorough review of the evidence in this matter by my office, 
the Federal
Bureau of Investigation, the Montgomery County District Attorney's 
Office, the Montgomery
County Detectives, and the Lower Merion Police Department, I have 
concluded that
bringing criminal charges is not warranted in this matter," Memeger said 
in a statement.
"We have not found evidence that would establish beyond a reasonable 
doubt that anyone
involved had criminal intent," he added.
The Lower Merion School District found itself under the spotlight 
following the suit
by Robbins, who alleged that school employees had
photographed him 400 times
  in a two-week period late last year at times when he was partially 
undressed or
sleeping.
The allegation brought to light that the district had activated the 
Webcams on student
laptops over a 14-month period through the use of a remote control 
system. School
officials said that the tracking system was set up only to locate lost 
or stolen
laptops, but they soon admitted that the software had stayed active even 
after a
laptop was found. As a result, the program took images every 15 minutes, 
capturing
a total of 56,000 pictures in total, according to the
Associated Press
.
During the course of the investigation, two employees at the district were
put on administrative leave
, while the photos of the students were all handed over to the local 
police department.
The school itself was
issued a court order
  restraining it from activating any more Webcams, though by that time 
it had already
shut down the tracking feature on its own.
 From its end, the school district has consistently maintained that it 
did nothing
wrong and welcomed the decision by the U.S. Attorney.
"We are very pleased with today's decision by the U.S. Attorney's 
Office, which supports
the findings of our internal investigation and follows last night's 
approval of new
laptop policies by the school board," Christopher McGinley, 
Superintendent of Lower
Merion School District, said in a statement.
The school district has since
changed its laptop policies
, now promising that it will not access a laptop without authority from 
the student
and parents and will only do so to remotely resolve a technical problem. 
Tracking
software will only be activated if the student and parents file a police 
report indicating
that the laptop has been lost or stolen, but the software will not have 
the ability
to trigger screenshots.
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[real-eyes] School escapes charges in Webcam spying case

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