The Federal Bureau of Investigation is now looking into the Pennsylvania school spycam case, according to a new report. CNN said this weekend that “a law enforcement officer” told the network the FBI has opened an investigation following the lawsuit filed by a family in the Lower Merion School District which contended that federal laws and the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment were violated.
In a statement released Friday evening, School Superintendent Dr. Christopher W. McGinley said the district has retained the services of former federal prosecutor Henry E. Hockeimer Jr. to “assist in our comprehensive review.” He also reported that the security-tracking software has been disabled, and that it was limited to “taking a still image of the computer user and an image of the desktop” for locating missing or stolen student laptops.
‘Unlawful Interception and Access’
Parents Michael and Holly Robbins are seeking damages against the suburban Philadelphia district for invasion of privacy, theft of private information, and “unlawful interception and access” to electronic communication. They claim that, without their knowledge or authorization, the district was spying on students and their families through the “indiscriminate remote activation of the webcams incorporated into each laptop.”
The Robbins said they first learned of the remote monitoring capability on Nov. 11 when an assistant principal at one of the district’s two high schools told their son that he was “engaged in improper behavior in his home,” according to the lawsuit, and that the evidence was a photograph from the webcam in his laptop. According to their suit, the father then verified with the assistant principal that the district can remotely activate and view through the webcam of their son’s laptop.
But Dr. McGinley specifically denied that any high-school administrator had the ability to access the security-tracking software, adding that the assistant principal “has been unfairly portrayed and unjustly…