A suburban Philadelphia school district used school-issued laptop webcams to spy on students at home, a US federal lawsuit claims.
Officials at the school district can activate webcams on the computers without students' knowledge or permission, a family alleges in the lawsuit.
Plaintiffs Michael and Holly Robbins suspect the cameras captured students and family members as they undressed and in other embarrassing situations.
The school district could not immediately confirm whether it has the ability to activate the computer webcams remotely, said spokesman Doug Young.
"We can categorically state that we are and have always been committed to protecting the privacy of our students," he said.
Tom Halperin, a 15-year-old sophomore from Wynnewood, said students were "pretty disgusted" and have started putting masking tape over their computer webcams and microphones.
"This is just bogus," Halperin said.
"I just think it's really despicable that they have the ability to just watch me all the time."
The accusations amount to potentially illegal electronic wiretapping, said Witold J. Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which is not involved in the case.
"School officials cannot, any more than police, enter into the home either electronically or physically without an invitation or a warrant," Walczak said.
The affluent district prides itself on its technology initiatives, which include giving laptops to each of the 2,300 students at its two high schools.
Superintendent Christopher W. McGinley did not immediately return a message left on Thursday by The Associated Press.
The Robbinses said they learned of the alleged webcam images when Lindy Matsko, an assistant high school principal, told their son that school officials thought he had engaged in improper behaviour at home.
The behaviour was not specified in the suit.
Matsko "cited as evidence a photograph from the webcam embedded in minor plaintiff's personal laptop issued by the school district," the lawsuit states.
Matsko later confirmed to Michael Robbins that the school had the ability to activate the webcams remotely, according to the lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday and which seeks class-action status.
Neither the Robbinses nor their lawyer, Mark S. Haltzman, returned messages left on Thursday by The Associated Press.
In 2001, the US Supreme Court reaffirmed the privacy of the home in a case that said police could not permeate a home with infrared lights to see if a suspect was using heat lamps to grow marijuana.
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