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RE: [xmca] Being Searched at School
Here's the story:
Lower Merion School District laptop spying: School officials and their
secret spyware
By Star-Ledger Editorial Board/The Star-Led...
February 22, 2010, 5:27AM
Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty ImagesAre laptops spying on kids in a school district
outside Philadelphia?Officials at Lower Merion School District outside
Philadelphia have a great deal of explaining to do. And it looks like
they'll do it in court.
A student at the school filed suit after he was called into the assistant
principal's office and reprimanded for "inappropriate behavior while at
home."
How did school officials know what he was doing at home? They secretly
installed spyware on student laptops, and snapped a photo of him without his
knowledge, according to the student. He found out when they showed him the
picture.
School officials are in a defensive crouch now, refusing to answer
questions. They say they installed the software only to track missing
laptops. But they won't explain that photo, which indicates that they went
considerably further. Parents are understandably furious.
"No government official, whether it's police or school officials, can enter
an individual's home - whether electronically or personally - without a
warrant," said Vick Volcheck of the Philadelphia chapter of the American
Civil Liberties Union. "It's completely beyond me to guess what these
officials were thinking."
Such snooping is not just illegal, it's downright creepy. Parents have no
way of knowing if the cameras captured students and other family members as
they undressed or in other highly private situations. Who in the school is
monitoring these laptop cameras, and what else have they seen?
Lower Merion prides itself on its technology initiatives, including placing
a tracking-security feature on laptops issued to all its 2,300 high school
students.
Fine. But any kid who has studied the United States Constitution knows that
we all have a right to privacy in our own homes. It's shocking to think that
educators who are supposed to teach them haven't gotten that message.
Peter Smagorinsky
Professor of English Education
Department of Language and Literacy Education
The University of Georgia
125 Aderhold Hall
Athens, GA 30602
smago@uga.edu
-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
Behalf Of Tony Whitson
Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2010 9:52 PM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: Re: [xmca] Being Searched at School
Surveillance takes other forms in more affluent suburbs.
In Lower Merion outside Philadelphia, the high school issued laptops to
the students, and then remotely turned on the built-in cameras so they
could monitor the students' activities in their bedrooms or wherever.
On Tue, 23 Feb 2010, Lois Holzman wrote:
> I invite everyone to watch a short clip from The Wok/Play devised and
performed by Youth Onstage young people http://vimeo.com/9684907. It speaks
volumes on their experience of schooling. For those who aren't familiar
with high schools in poor neighborhoods in US cities, the scene is set at
the school entrance where security guards put their stuff through a metal
detector and search the kids each morning. Enjoy their creative response to
an impossible and oppressive "learning" environment.
> Lois
>
>
>
>
> Lois Holzman, Director
> East Side Institute for Group and Short Term Psychotherapy
> 920 Broadway, 14th floor
> New York NY 10010
> tel. 212.941.8906 ext. 324
> fax 718.797.3966
> lholzman@eastsideinstitute.org
> www.eastsideinstitute.org
> www.performingtheworld.org
> loisholzman.org
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> xmca mailing list
> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>
Tony Whitson
UD School of Education
NEWARK DE 19716
twhitson@udel.edu
_______________________________
"those who fail to reread
are obliged to read the same story everywhere"
-- Roland Barthes, S/Z (1970)
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