American School Settles Webcam Spying Lawsuit

A Pennsylvania school district in the United States has agreed to a $610,000 (£385,000) settlement for a controversial lawsuit regarding accusations it used webcams on school-issued laptops to take pictures of students.

The Lower Merion School District confessed to taking thousands of webcam photos and screenshots from school-issued laptops. The district contended the technology was meant to find missing computers.

However in February, the parents of Harriton High School student Blake Robbins, then 15, accused the district of using it to spy on him inside his home.

In The Money

The settlement calls for $175,000 (£110,000) to be placed in a trust for Robbins, while a second student who sued, Jalil Hassan, will get $10,000 (£6,300).

In addition, the students’ attorney, Mark Haltzman, will get $425,000 (£268,000) in legal fees – bringing the district’s tab to $610,000.

In August, the FBI declined to bring any charges in the case, ending several months of investigation.

“A major impetus behind settling this matter now is the recent agreement by our insurance carrier, Graphic Arts, to cover more than $1.2 million (£757 million) of the fees and costs associated with this litigation to date,” Lower Merion School Board President David Ebby said in a statement.

“Although we would have valued the opportunity to finally share an important, untold story in the courtroom, we recognise that in this case, a lengthy, costly trial would benefit no one,” he said. “It would have been an unfair distraction for our students and staff and it would have cost taxpayers additional dollars that are better devoted to education. We also wanted to be sensitive to the welfare of the student involved in the case, given the possible ramifications of what would have been a highly-publicised trial.”

Improper Behaviour

According to the suit, the district gave high school students computers as part of a technology initiative, but did not notify families that the laptops were equipped with webcams that could be turned on remotely.

The Robbins family alleged they did not learn of the capability until school officials accused their son Blake of “improper behaviour in his home” and cited a photograph from the webcam embedded in the laptop as evidence.

The district is no longer using the tracking technology.