February 2010

The recent case involving the Lower Merion School District and their use of laptop computer cameras to spy on students in their homes, is one of those stories that tends to leave you, at least it did me, in stunned disbelief.

Whether the school owns the computers or not, that ownership does not give them the right to become peeping toms in people’s homes.

What is even more shocking to me is the fact that professional educators, people who we tell our children they should trust and respect, would so blatantly disregard the constitutionally guaranteed right to privacy…a right they are supposed to be teaching to the very children upon whom they are spying.

The serious implications of these actions by LMSD are compounded by what appears to be a less than concerned attitude by LMSD’s top administrators and school board who have “deactivated the webcams while they conduct a thorough review: That’s really big of them. I think an abject and public apology would be more in order.

Speaking for myself and my family, the knowledge that someone had watched my child in the privacy of their room, would test my limits of civilized behavior. When the dust settles on this case, we can only hope that everyone responsible is out of a job.