Legal proceedings are getting underway in the case of
Philadelphia's Pennsylvania's
Lower Merion School District -- you know, the one accused of remotely turning on webcams on its student's laptops inappropriately? We knew that district IT folks enabled the webcams 42 times in total, capturing pictures every 15 seconds, but now we're learning that over 400 images were retrieved of a single sophomore and that there are thousands more of other students. There is also seeming proof of use of the webcams even when laptops were not reported stolen, like when a student failed to pay the school's hardware insurance premiums. The district is apparently not standing behind its two IT employees who had the necessary permissions to enable this remote viewing, technology coordinator Carol Cafiero and technician Michael Perbix, and from what little we can tell now it's not looking particularly good for them. In a deposition Cafiero refused to answer any questions, citing her Fifth Amendment rights, but an alleged e-mail exchange between the two saw Perbix calling the pictures "a little LMSD soap opera," to which Cafiero replied "I know, I love it!" That doesn't sound
entirely appropriate...
Update: We've received a few comments and e-mails about calling this "Philadelphia's Lower Merion School District" when, in actuality, the school is outside of the city limits, and county limits too, so we've corrected that above. Apparently
nobody wants to be associated with these guys.
posted April 17th 2010 10:42PM
district tested, pedobear approved.
@skyblaze
Awesome.
@skyblaze freaky eh "Kids never get dressed in front of computer, they"
@tech404 may be watching"
sorry my computer keyboard is stuffed :|
One of the photos released by the district here http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/20100416_1_000s_of_Web_cam_images__suit_says.html
HALLO THAR PEDOBEAR!!!
@skyblaze
You have no idea how much people would pay to see this "little LMSD soap opera"
LOLz... And they protect the pedophiles
"Despite widespread concern about the alleged spying, hundreds of parents have signed on to oppose the Robbins family's suit for financial and other reasons."
@n0ne +
This would be a better image.
http://i43.tinypic.com/27yxt76.jpg
@n0ne
AWESOME!
@Evan That's not funny! One of my close friends died from sniffing pillows.
@skyblaze
DID ANYONE ELSE NOTICE THAT THIS PIC WAS TAKEN IN A BATHROOM?
@n0ne
Well.. they might have to pay more money instead of having a few school employees perving at their kids.
Can't somebody think of the tax payers...
If it happened here in the UK, the accused parties would be in protective custody by now to stop them being lynched, and anybody involved would hopefully have been fired.
At first I thought the school was using the ITs as a scapegoat, but now it appears the ITs are the creeps.
The last thing the IT industry needs is a worse reputation. Those two clowns are NOT helping.
@(Unverified) Read the report, There not even being fired. They gave them paid leave. In other word, a nice paid vacation for being Pedophiles. Pretty nice eh?
"like when a student failed to pay the school's hardware insurance premiums"
That tells me higher ups told them to do it.
As long as a single picture is of an underaged girl the school is screwed.
Underaged boys on the other hand, they'd get away with. As the pope proves, no one cares about little boys.
Is that a penis pump in the top left corner of the laptop screen? Not that I'd know what a penis pump looks like...
@IAMKITTY
No IAMKITTY, no one else noticed that... you are the first one.
@skyblaze Actually, there's a video created before to explain how easy it is to control someone else's laptop via FTP. Reactions. http://bit.ly/school-spying-on-kids-worst
@skyblaze
This is my daily MSPaint vision:
http://i.imgur.com/EByLA.png
@skyblaze
Well done sir.
@Seph
Are you serious? There's nothing wrong with being a pedophile? I get that you're saying it's only immoral if the thoughts are acted on, but to say that there's nothing "wrong" with having sexual thoughts about prepubescent children is ridiculous.
@Extinction That's exactly right, here we have a woman accused of spying on a teenage boy so she would typically get away with it but if they find that Michael Pervix was looking at little girls, he'll go to prison. Hopefully the fact that both have committed the same crime, they will both have an equally harsh sentence - listen up feminists, equality means equal rights and equal responsibility for your actions.
If a guy is accused of having pictures of girls on his computer, the FBI breaks down their door and seizes the machine without any opportunity to delete them. This woman is accused of viewing images at home because of what she said in emails but is allowed to refuse to turn her computer over for inspection and erase the pictures in the mean-time.
Thousands of pictures captured is obscene, there is absolutely no way they can justify they were captured legitimately when they have emails joking about it being like a soap opera. These perverts were watching the kids regularly in the privacy of their homes.
My verdict:
GUILTY! 12 months in prison each for the IT techs and a massive payout from the school to all the families for even allowing the possibility of pedophiles spying on their children in their most vulnerable state (masturbating in front of the computer).
The very reason why I shout out "I KNOW YOUR LISTENING" at random intervals when I'm alone.
@Nitesh
Lol.
@Nitesh
xkcd reference is a win.
@mikethebigo
xkcd references are always win.
@Nitesh. The force is always listening
@Lord Vader
I sing to it sometimes, maybe it cheers the force up.
@Nitesh. Nothing can cheer the force up, knowing that jar jar binks is still alive and well
@Lord Vader
He'll be dead soon enough...
@Lord Vader
just stop, we will all die of laughter if you continue...
@SolidSnake. Well, that is the intended outcome
@Lord Vader
Yes, yes I am.
@Nitesh - +1
@Lord Vador. YOU IMPOSTOR. Please, use the damn force and kick this guy off engadget. Please Commander Stevens, do what is right. Savagely mutilate this bothan spy.
@Lord Vader. YOU IMPOSTOR. Please, use the damn force and kick this guy off engadget. Please Commander Stevens, do what is right. Savagely mutilate this bothan spy.
@Lord Vador
"Not me you idiot, HIM!" Oh wait, wrong universe.
@Lord Vador
I kill sith.
@Lord Vador - IMPOSTOR!!! NO INTERNETS FOR YOU!
@MRCUR spam much ?
@Lord Vador
i think ill stick with the Lord Vador that has 299 comments in his history
@Lord Vader
I reported the impostor to the admins. I hope I did well Lord Vader, I hear you are scary when your angry.
@emopoops - Uh, no, I don't spam.
@Lord Vader ._.
to our dear American friends:
Please explain us what the Fifth Amendment rights is here. "I shall have the right to spy thy neighbour's wife"?????
@kingofwale 5th Amendment is the right against self-incrimination. Normally in depositions you are compelled to answer questions truthfully and under oath just as in court. However the 5th Amendment protects the witness where the witness's testimony may be self-incrimination. Additionally, no negative inference can be made from "claiming the 5th."
@kingofwale
From Wikipedia:
"The fifth amendment protects witnesses from being forced to incriminate themselves. To "plead the Fifth" is to refuse to answer a question because the response could provide self-incriminating evidence of an illegal conduct punished by fines, penalties or forfeiture."
@kingofwale
One, two, three, four, FIF
@freddych The part I find to be difficult is the 'no negative assumptions' thing. I mean, maybe you're trying to be careful or whatever, but an innocent person shouldn't be afraid.
I mean, "I can't answer your question because I would probably get convicted. But I'm innocent, yeah?"
I understand that we *shouldn't* view those who plead the 5th in a negative light, but it just kind of hits me that way. Perhaps someday I myself will have to do it for a perfectly good reason... then I'll gladly eat my assumptions.