A group of Lower Merion and Harriton High School parents met to discuss ways to derail the possibility that a federal lawsuit over laptop spying could lead to a lengthy and expensive class-action case against their district.
Bryn Mawr resident Michael Boni, one of the organizers, said yesterday: "We have spoken to our neighbors and friends, and it seemed that there was a groundswell of opposition to one family with one lawyer bringing this action on behalf of the community."
He said the parents were "not suggesting there weren't problems" with how the district has handled the laptop issue. "But we don't think [a class-action lawsuit] is the answer."
The group, which calls itself lmsdparents.org, is limited to parents of students at the two high schools. Between 300 and 400 parents had signed on by yesterday afternoon, said Bob Wegbreit, another founder.
A related group calling itself Parents in Support of the Lower Merion School District, which said it shared the same objectives, had garnered more than 700 signatures on an online petition by yesterday evening.
Andy Derrow, a Harriton junior's father who has joined the new group, said yesterday: "There are a lot of us who are incredibly skeptical of the motives of the Robbins family." He said the district was a "pioneer" in buying laptops for students to use at home as well as in school.
"It is so easy to second-guess the decision [to use the laptop theft-tracking device], but there was no handbook out there for how to do it," he said. "We are all waiting for all the facts to be known, but so far, our attitude is that we want to help the school district fix whatever needs to be fixed and to move on."
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What to make of parents who believe there is nothing wrong with a government entity--the school--spying on their children in their own homes with webcams? I'm at a loss. Every parent should be knocking down the doors of the school and the BOE with pitchforks. Instead, they defend the school? I have no doubt they are "liberals" on top of it, licking the boots of the Amerikkkan police state. I suppose these same parents would have no problem if their bosses spied on them in their own bedrooms through similar methods.
ReplyDeleteConsider that most school districts which knew about the remote webcam technology rejected both that feature and webcams on laptops. More on this issue here.
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