Saint Jade IV wrote:NERVUN wrote:Saint Jade IV wrote:I guess the most obvious questions to ask are - who owned the laptops in question? If it was the school or education department, then they have a right to dictate what they can be used for, and what they can't. And did the students sign any sort of terms of use agreement - if they did, the school has a perfectly legitimate right to punish them for violating it. I have a school laptop as an educator, and I am well aware of the rules governing it's use, including that the school can monitor what I do with it. Our students in Australia are subjected to the same terms as we are, and are not stupid enough to use school issued equipment to do things like this.
While I am a big advocate for protection of privacy, I really don't see that this is an issue, unless the laptops were gifted to the students or purchased by the families.
I'm trying to see where a school as the right to dictate behavor in a student's home or monitor student (AND non-student) actions without prior authorization.
It's one thing to say that a school laptop shouldn't be used to surf porn or to engage in a cyberattack on something, it is quite another to remotely turn on a webcam and watch students and their families in their homes.
My understanding is that an inappropriate picture was found on the laptop of a student. If the laptop belongs to the school, or the students are subject to an agreement on appropriate use, they have a right to check the contents of the laptop and what it is being used for.
I don't know enough technically about the webcam thing, but again if the school laptop is being used with a webcam, the school has a right to check what is being put onto it. Especially if the webcam is part of the package. Now if the school is found to be using the webcams to spy on students and families on a day-to-day basis, rather than confirming that the rules of use are being followed, that is a different story.
No see, the thing was that the webcam took a picture of the student doing something at his home, and used this as eveidence for so called "inproper behavior at home"