Lower Merion Denies Spy Webcam Threat

PHILADELPHIA - The Lower Merion school district defends an assistant principal who allegedly confronted a teen about his behavior, using a Webcam image taken by the school without his knowledge.

A lawsuit claims the Harriton High School assistant principal told Blake Robbins about improper behavior and cited as evidence a photograph taken from the teens’ school issued laptop.

The district says they "never did and never would use such tactics as a basis for disciplinary action."

With both the FBI and the Montgomery County District attorney now investigating, the truth will come out. Fox 29 spoke with former prosecutor and prominent defense attorney Fred Perri who says the civil lawsuit got the attention of federal and local law enforcement entities who will most likely subpoena records and conduct interviews before a grand jury.

Meanwhile, the superintendent of schools, Dr. Christopher McGinley did say in a letter to families that "there was no explicit notification that the laptop contained the security software. This notice should have been given and we regret that was not done."

Parents Michael and Holly Robbins claim an assistant principal disciplined their son using an image obtained using the webcam on his district-issued laptop.

On Friday night, Blake Robbins spoke publicly for the first time and revealed what officials thought they caught him doing.

"They thought I was selling drugs because they thought I was popping pills when really I was just eating Mike & Ikes. So they thought that I could possibly be selling drugs, too – which they found out they were wrong about," the boy told reporters. "I just hope that they're not watching me."

The school district says it has only utilized the security features to track stolen or missing laptops.

But the Robbinses' attorney, Mark Haltzman, "It's absolutely not true that this was a lost or stolen laptop."

Haltzman added, "They were trying to allege that when Blake was holding two Mike & Ikes in his hand – which he apparently loves and eats religiously – that those were pills and somehow he was involved in selling drugs. And, you know, that's what they wanted to bring to his attention. That's what they were bringing to the parents' attention. But that doesn't fall in line with their stated purpose of why they're turning on these webcams."

Lower Merion Schools issued another update on the matter after 10 p.m. Friday night.

"At no time did any high school administrator have the ability or actually access the security- tracking software," the update reads. "We believe that the administrator at Harriton has been unfairly portrayed and unjustly attacked in connection with her attempts to be supportive of a student and his family. The district never did and never would use such tactics as a basis for disciplinary action."

District Reacts To Lawsuit

Students who received district laptops and a parent or guardian had to sign a so-called "acceptable use" form, which included a warning that users should not assume files stored on those laptops would be private.

But the school district admits there was no reference on those forms to a remote-controlled webcam that could snap a picture of anyone or anything in front of the computer screen.

That revelation has parents angry and students wondering whether they have any privacy at all when using the school laptops.

"We had to sign a lot of forms to get the laptops initially and forms for insurance and appropriate use that the students had to abide by," Harriton H.S. parent Cici Brooks told Fox 29. "And there was never anything, to my knowledge, that we signed that let us know as parents or a student that they have that device that could tape and take pictures at home. And to me that's outrageous."

Asked what the buzz was around school Friday, freshman Blake Derman answered, "That teachers are watching us. That's about it."

Are students angry or surprised?

"Sort of shocked, and like scared," Derman said. "Not scared-scared, but just like afraid to do normal things on the computer now."

A district spokesman said their security specialists were instructed to use the webcam – which they say captured a silent, still image – only if the laptop was reported lost or stolen by the student-user or his or her parent of guardian.

District officials revealed Friday that the webcams were remotely activated 42 times in the past 14 months to find missing computers, but they never did so to spy on students. They now say 18 laptops were recovered.

Video Shows How Feature Works

In a 2008 video clip uncovered by Fox 29, Michael Perbix, a Lower Merion School District network technician, participated in a webinar and talked about the security features now at the crux of this federal lawsuit.

"The other big feature, which really, really, really I really liked about this, is the computer tracking or theft tracking feature that LANRev has," Perbix says in the clip.

He explains how the feature works, noting that when it's activated and the laptop