Another Webcam Suit Filed By Former Harriton Student

A third lawsuit was filed against Lower Merion School District this week in connection with controversial webcam privacy issues surrounding school-issued laptops.

Joshua Levin, now of Spruce Street in Philadelphia, was a student and a minor at the time he alleges he was spied on. Levin was issued a personal laptop computer with a webcam as part of the district’s one-to-one laptop program for high school students.

“Unbeknownst to plaintiff, and without his authorization, defendants had been spying on the activities of plaintiff by defendants’ indiscriminant use of and ability to remotely activate the webcams incorporated into each laptop issued to students by the school district,” the suit states.

Lower Merion School District maintains that Levin's suit is purely financially motivated.

“The [Lower Merion School] District views this lawsuit by a 2009 graduate as solely motivated by monetary interests and a complete waste of tax dollars,” according to a district statement in regard to the most recent filing. “The former student’s computer was one of six that were stolen from school property in 2008 and eventually recovered by the Lower Merion police. No Lower Merion School District employee ever viewed the images recorded on the stolen laptop.

“The District has repeatedly attempted to be fair and reasonable in this matter,” according to the statement. “Regrettably, the Plaintiff has flatly refused all efforts to achieve resolution through court-supervised mediation.”

(To read more, go to the Bryn Mawr Patch by .)