James Delahunty
13 Oct 2010 13:45
The Lower Merion School District has settled litigation brought against it by the families of two students for allegedly spying on them at home using a webcam built into laptops issued by the district.
The Pennsylvania school district has agreed to a settlement of $610,000. Of that settlement, $175,000 is to be placed in a trust for Harriton High School student Blake Robbins, and $10,000 goes to a second student, Jalil Hassan. who sued later on.
The students' attorney, Mark Haltzman, will get $425,000 in legal fees. "A major impetus behind settling this matter now is the recent agreement by our insurance carrier, Graphic Arts, to cover more than $1.2M of the fees and costs associated with this litigation to date," Lower Merion School Board President David Ebby said in a statement.
The district provided high school students with laptops as part of a technology initiative, but did not alert families that the laptops were equipped with webcams that could be turned on remotely. Robbins, who was 15 at the time, did not know about this until school officials allegedly accused him of "improper behavior in his home," citing a photograph taken from the webcam while he was at home.
In August, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said it wouldn't bring charges in the case after several months. "Although we would have valued the opportunity to finally share an important, untold story in the courtroom, we recognize that in this case, a lengthy, costly trial would benefit no one," Ebby 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-publicized trial."