Global General

US school make amends for webcam spy

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-10-12 10:31

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania - A Philadelphia-area school district will pay $610,000 to settle two lawsuits over secret photos taken on school-issued laptops.

The Lower Merion School District admits it captured thousands of webcam photographs and screen shots from student laptops in a misguided effort to locate missing computers.

The district is settling lawsuits filed this year by Lower Merion High School student Blake Robbins and a second student. Robbins says the district photographed him 400 times in a two-week period, sometimes as he slept in his bedroom.

District officials say they voted Monday night to pay Robbins $175,000 and his lawyer, Mark Haltzman, $425,000 for his work on the case. A second student will get $10,000.

The FBI investigated but declined to bring a criminal wiretap case.