School District Settles Suit Alleging It Spied on Students

A suburban Philadelphia school district has settled a lawsuit that accused the district of spying on students by secretly activating their webcams.

The Lower Merion School District will pay $185,000 to two students (all but $10,000 of it going to one of the students) and $425,000 in legal fees to their attorney, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

The district launched a plan in 2008 to give laptops to nearly 2,300 high school students to use in class and at home. But the students were not told that computers reported as missing could be remotely tracked using software that lets technicians turn on webcams, the newspaper reported.

The suit claimed that the district secretly snapped hundreds of images via Blake Robbins' laptop, including one when he was sleeping. The student had never reported his computer missing and was surprised when an assistant principal presented him with webcam photos of himself.

The settlement, which was approved unanimously by school board members Tuesday, must be approved by a U.S. District judge.