Joshua Levin is the latest student from the Lower Merion School District to sue the district over school spying allegations. Last year, the district spent more than $1.6 million to litigate and settle claims that school administrators had spied on students through webcams on laptops it had given students, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer.
According to the Inquirer, Levin, a 2009 graduate of Harriton High School, claims that his civil rights were violated when the district captured nearly 8,000 webcam photos and screen shots from his laptop over a six-month period during the 2008-09 school year.
In resolving its previous lawsuits, the Lower Merion School District acknowledged that it had activated webcams on student laptops to capture and view images without the students' consent. However, the district claimed that it had only intended to use the webcams after laptops were reported lost or stolen.
Problems arose though when the webcams were not turned off after the laptops were returned to students. The laptops reportedly captured and sent more than 65,000 images, including many images of students rightfully in possession of the laptops reports the Inquirer.
While Levin's complaint does not describe the images the district allegedly captured, last year, in a separate lawsuit, it was revealed that the Lower Merion School District had captured images of a student sleeping and other intimate moments.
Joshua Levin is claiming that he is "shocked" and "humiliated" by the pictures and says that he suffers severe emotional distress. The district essentially calls Levin's lawsuit a money grab and a "waste of tax dollars."
In an invasion of privacy lawsuit, a plaintiff usually argues that his reasonable expectations of privacy have been violated.
Whether Joshua Levin had any expectations of privacy on the district-owned laptop, and whether the district was acting reasonably when it took nearly 8,000 images of Levin, are issues the Lower Merion School District needs to resolve if it wants to prove that Levin's lawsuit is just a money-grab.
Related Resources:
- Find a Philadelphia Personal Injury Attorney (FindLaw)
- Penn. school district hit with new Mac spying lawsuit (Computerworld)
- Ten Commonly Asked Questions on Student Rights (FindLaw)
- Oh Brother, Will School Spy Case Change Fed Law? (FindLaw's Law & Daily Life)
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