In case you needed another reason to be concerned about public schools..

[terry]

School Spies on Students at Home With Webcams:

Idiots

How did Robbins and his family find out administrators could spy on them?

On Nov. 11, Harriton High School Assistant Principal Lindy Matsko told the teen that he “was engaged in improper behavior in his home,” and showed Robbins photographic evidence from his webcam, according to the suit.

[formerlurker]

Oh man -- I would fire the ENTIRE administration.    Are you kidding me right now?

[mamacags]

   I would kill someone!

[terry]

The district is saying this..

"Upon a report of a suspected lost, stolen or missing laptop, the feature would be activated by the District's security and technology departments. The security feature's capabilities were limited to taking a still image of the operator and the operator's screen. This feature was only used for the narrow purpose of locating a lost, stolen or missing laptop. The District never activated the security feature for any other purpose or in any other manner whatsoever.

As a result of our preliminary review of security procedures today, I directed the following actions:

    * Immediate disabling of the security-tracking program.
    * A thorough review of the existing policies for student laptop use.
    * A review of security procedures to help safeguard the protection of privacy, including a review of the instances in which the security software was activated. We want to ensure that any affected students and families are made aware of the outcome of laptop recovery investigations.
    * A review of any other technology areas in which the intersection of privacy and security may come into play."

So was this laptop reported lost or stolen?  It really doesn't seem to square with what the lawsuit says.

[formerlurker]

I think the District is engaging in damage control, and the statement was most likely written by their counsel.     They would need to be able to produce a policy written for the laptop administration prior to this occuring, which I am sure does not exist.

They are royally screwed over this.  The superintendent, principal and vice-principal needs to resign immediately -- their incompetence is mind boggling.

 

[thundley4]

What if one of those kids were undressing or already undressed in front of the camera.  It's a possibility.  If the webcams were recording at the school, the school district would be guilty of child pornography.

[NHSparky]

As discussed in the link, if someone doesn't go to jail over this, there is a SERIOUS problem:

LINK

[Thor]

This is the exact reason I don't own a web cam and why I don't have a microphone attached to any of my PCs. Too many people can hack into someone's PC and turn that stuff on. In this case, they are the schools computers and they have full access to them and all of the included features. I guess they've never heard of "lojack for laptops"   All in all, the School District needs to get rid of a few IT "professionals" and the senior administrators/ faculty.

[vesta111]

School Spies on Students at Home With Webcams:

Idiots

How did Robbins and his family find out administrators could spy on them?

On Nov. 11, Harriton High School Assistant Principal Lindy Matsko told the teen that he “was engaged in improper behavior in his home,” and showed Robbins photographic evidence from his webcam, according to the suit.

Something is very wrong here and it starts with this assistant principal Lindy Matsko.

What do you think caused her to check out this young man and what he was doing after school.?

Am I wrong but did not each lap top have a name and code to activate the camera.??

She had to have activated the camera for that lap top, this was not ramdon.

Why him, and was the principle involved for some reason, most assistants have to go through the boss before they act on anything.

This is the only proof so far that spying took place but after the fact has other students telling of the record light going on at odd hours.   

It is said that there were 40 pictures taken, for what reason, who were they watching and saving pictures of.?

Did poor Lindy happen to wander into a mud pile of child pornorgraphy, those she least expected.?

What did Lindy expect when she jacked up the student with a photo of him in his room at home.?  Lindy did not want this to go public or she would have taken the picture to the police.    What was it she wanted from this young boy.?

This was not a photo of the kid in public drinking a beer or smoking a J.  Why would she think he was doing drugs, so he was eating something, how or why would anyone think he was scarffing down illegal drugs.?   

There is so much that makes no sense, everything seems to be dark and dirty on the side of the school, the teachers and administration.

I wonder if this is being done else where and MBLA has pictures of your sons naked in the so called safty of their home and personal space.

Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite, folks.

Thor ---

[DefiantSix]

About the first time the webcam on any of the laptops in my house came on unbidden, I would be covering the damned thing with a nice piece of black electrical tape.  The first son of a bitch that complained would get his teeth knocked out the back of his neck.

[Thor]

What concerns me is that the schools are actively promoting  and requiring the use of computers. Because of that, I think that they are losing focus on the 3 Rs. No longer is the library required to be used. Spell check is built in to many computer word processing programs (and even most of the browsers). Computers are prevalent enough in people's lives that almost every home has at LEAST one. I could understand a school loaning a laptop to a student whose family can't afford a computer. However, I believe I recall that this particular school has some 2300 laptops?? Seriously??? Perhaps we need to get back to the basics and quit with the technocracy??

[Chris_]

What concerns me is that the schools are actively promoting  and requiring the use of computers. Because of that, I think that they are losing focus on the 3 Rs. No longer is the library required to be used. Spell check is built in to many computer word processing programs (and even most of the browsers). Computers are prevalent enough in people's lives that almost every home has at LEAST one. I could understand a school loaning a laptop to a student whose family can't afford a computer. However, I believe I recall that this particular school has some 2300 laptops?? Seriously??? Perhaps we need to get back to the basics and quit with the technocracy??

Er.....I'm dating myself, but I said the same thing about the use of calculators in schools........now we have two generations out there that can't do simple long division without one......

doc

[thundley4]

Er.....I'm dating myself, but I said the same thing about the use of calculators in schools........now we have two generations out there that can't do simple long division without one......

doc

I graduated in 79 , but out math teacher didn't allow calculators most of the time. We had to learn interpolation and how to use the Logarithm Tables, and slide rules.

[IassaFTots]

Er.....I'm dating myself, but I said the same thing about the use of calculators in schools........now we have two generations out there that can't do simple long division without one......

doc

I don't think I used a calculator until college.  Of course, my term papers were also typed on a typewriter too.  I agree with both you and Thor.  

[Thor]

Er.....I'm dating myself, but I said the same thing about the use of calculators in schools........now we have two generations out there that can't do simple long division without one......

doc

I never agreed with that, either. My step dad REFUSED to buy me a calculator when I was in high school. The TI-51A sci calc had just come out (74-75) and it would have been handy in my physics and trig classes. Instead, I was forced to use my brain and a slide rule. To this day and because of that, I can do most simple math in my head and usually more quickly than a person can punch in the numbers on a calculator. In fact, in those classes, I made it a game to beat the person who HAD one of those TI-51A sci-calcs by figuring out the answer to the questions we had to do before he could. I didn't always win because I might be a decimal place off, but I won more times than I lost.

[Chris_]

I graduated in 79 , but out math teacher didn't allow calculators most of the time. We had to learn interpolation and how to use the Logarithm Tables, and slide rules.

Like I said, I'm dating myself, but I was working on my PhD when the first "handheld" calculator hit the market (by Texas Instruments, in 1973)......and I STILL use a slide rule.......and I can also still calculate exponential roots with pen and paper (not that I ever do it any more)......

I guess the point that I'm making is that elementary school students are not taught to memorize multiplication and division tables any longer, so basic math skills, that are necessary for the understanding of theoretical math disciplines later, are not taught to students.......if they can't do the math, they don't go into the sciences, and we end up with a problem with the availability of technically skilled people in the workplace......all as a result of schools adhering to "new math" or other rediculous teaching methods, that shortchange students.

As an interesting aside, a friend of mine's grandaughter is a sophomore in college, and is taking an algebra course  (202 level......this is NOT a joke)........she was using the exact same textbook that I used for algebra in the 8th grade!!  We wonder why the schools are a total mess.......

doc

[NHSparky]

I graduated in 79 , but out math teacher didn't allow calculators most of the time. We had to learn interpolation and how to use the Logarithm Tables, and slide rules.

I was right on the cusp.  I learned logarithms in 8th grade--on a slide rule.  By the time I graduated HS, we were using calculators.  By the time I did my recruiting tour 15 years after that, kids could punch in a trig formula and have it printed out for them on a graphing calculator, but had no idea what it meant...maybe that's why I ran into so many kids who took Calculus but couldn't crack 550 on the math portion of the SAT.

[DefiantSix]

Interrupting the old farts and their ruminating long enough to go back on topic for a moment...

Federal judge orders school district to stop spying on students
By Tony Romm - 02/24/10 10:44 AM ET

A Pennsylvania school district has been ordered to disable equipment allowing officials to watch students using cameras  on their laptops.

The order, issued Wednesday by a federal judge, will prevent school administrators from turning on cameras installed on students' school-issued laptops remotely.

The move arrives at the request of a Lower Merion family, which claimed school officials were wrong to activate the camera, snap a photo of their son and confront him about its contents...

<snip>

h/t to John at Stink-eye.net

We now return you to your regularly scheduled tangent (and logarithms, apparently), already in progress... 

[debk]

Supposedly the webcam was also activated on a girl's computer.

She said her's was open, playing music while she was undressing/dressing and possibly filmed her in the bathroom.

Creepy.


Those of you who KNOW how to use a slide rule....

are creepy aliens. 

I was out of college before hand held calculators were available.

Slide rules were invented by the devil....I hate those things! And square roots, and...and....and .... algebra and calculus....and it all hates me too.