We are seeing evolution, as it happens. The story is evolving.
- inappropriate action
- drugs
- Mike n Ike candy
- computer theft
- unpaid security fee
How many times is the story gonna change before someone calls bullshit?
Oh, yes. Let’s do a forensic image many days later. Brilliant.
-Joe
We have no evidence the School District said anything like that.
The School District has never mentioned 2, or 3.
All they have said is in their general policy statement I have posted. They aren’t changing their story, they have never HAD a story.
Susan is correct. Note from your cite “…the Robbins accused school district employees,…” bolding mine.
Yes, I know, they did not say “don’t eat Mike and Ikes”, that was not really a serious statement.
I didn’t say Susan is incorrect.
I merely posted something that claims the school district was attempting to do the image mgmt she was speaking of. It doesn’t mean anyone is wrong or right, it’s just a new development.
I was trying to set up a “chronological” order, and was not separating the “who says what”. Very sloppy, yes.
The school is in a bit of a double bind, though. They have to protect the student’s privacy, but they also have a whole bunch of taxpayers demanding information about what is going on. The compromise in the Order seems reasonable under the circumstances.
I read it as an addition; I just saw that article today, too.
I was googling around about this topic because I saw Mike Perbix’s blog entry about how to enable and disable iSight (including remotely).
Found a forum where everyone was trying to figure out how to permanently disable the camera (due to work security issues, school legal issues, etc.), including the following post from someone that was worried about legal issues. What’s my point? no real point, it’s just interesting.
Asst. Principal Lindy Matsko read a prepared statement today, but did not answer questions (link below includes video.) The Robbins family was interviewed by the press today; they said that they are the victims, not Matsko. The Robbins’ attorneys have said that they will release a response to the press this evening.
Interesting statement in what was said and not said. That Matsko herself did not do the monitoring or set up the monitoring is hardly surprising. What is surprising is that when she was handed the picture she did not tell whichever IP guy giving it to her to stop immediately. What is also surprising is that she didn’t think that the parents would hit the roof about this.
Does this mean that the school administration knew about it, or that she learned about it when given the picture and didn’t consider the implications?
Before the Order, they could have described both their policy about this and how the policy was implemented without violating the privacy of any particular student. I doubt it would be a good idea legally, but not for privacy reasons. Now their hands are tied.
The Robbins’ response includes a request for the school district to promptly turn over all webcam pictures and screenshots to the Robbins’ attorney, and asks other parents to contact the district to demand that the information is turned over.
I posted earlier that I was waiting for more facts. Now there are some.
And I don’t think it’s looking good for the district.
1,000s of Web cam images, suit says
And the most damning quote in the article.
The thing I don’t understand, from the school district’s perspective: they say the monitoring software was turned on because the student had not paid the insurance fee to take the laptop home.
If that’s the case, why didn’t they confront the student after the first picture of him at home was taken? Apparently the photos were taken every 15 minutes the laptop was on for at least two weeks, according to the story, and the school didn’t do anything until they suspected the student was taking drugs (which turned out to be candy).
That, plus the program administrator that Projammer quoted pleaded the 5th amendment when questioned, and there are accusations she downloaded some of the images to her home computer. I agree it does not look good for them right now.
Holy crap, they are toast. With that many photos it is almost certain they caught some kids undressed or engaging in a sexual activity. I could see anyone who looked at the photos in any capacity other than to immediately notify the police that a laptop was stolen, as ending up as registered sex offenders.
School District admits to taking 56,000 webcam photos and screen shots. Yeah, I’d say there are a few finished careers here – or that’s a lot of lost or stolen laptops.
And, that’s all sad and everything, but was there nobody at any point who said, “Holy fuck, this is a terrible idea. I’d like to lodge an objection so that it’s in the record, please”?
Joe