Double standards, a game you can't play

[unixronin]

C|Net is reporting that Lower Merion School District will face no charges whatsoever for covertly photographing underage students using laptop webcams, allegedly including photos of students "partly dressed or sleeping" — because "federal and local prosecutors looking into the incident were unable to prove criminal intent on the part of school employees".  (Emphasis mine.)

Now, if a private individual not associated with the school district was found to be in possession of 56,000 photos of sometimes-partly-dressed high school students, without their knowledge, criminal intent wouldn't have even been on the table.  Mere possession of the photos would have been enough to nail the coffin shut on kiddie-porn charges, because if you're a private individual, possession is enough to damn you.  Even if the US Postmaster sent you a package as part of a sting operation and you never even opened it or knew what it was.

(There's plenty of cases on record of innocent people who have had their lives ruined that way in kiddie-porn witch hunts.  You want to nail someone on kiddie porn charges, but you don't have any actual or even circumstantial evidence that he has, or ever had, any in his possession, and can't find any grounds that a judge will buy into for a search warrant?  No problem, just mail him some, then arrest him for possessing it the moment he takes the package out of the mailbox, while he's still looking at the package in confusion because he hasn't ordered anything.)

But because this is a school district doing it, they got a free walk.

Double standards, anyone...?

Comments

[hugh_mannity]

No, no, you don't understand. Individuals are inherently evil. Institutions, and especially government institutions, are inherently good. It's their job to protect us from the evils perpetrated by individuals.

/sarcasm.

[ithildae]

I saw that go by a few days past. My blood pressure is still not down to normal.

[lebo-superman.livejournal.com]

Time to fire the entire DA's office, and the School Board. What's good for the goose, is good for the gander, you know?

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

round 1?

i'm sure the parents can goto round 2.

as well, they control who's on the school board. nobody will hire these goons, eh?

and of course, cough, civil court ;)

#

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Voting out the entire school board would certainly be a good start.

[milktree.livejournal.com]

One difference that I think is important (but not important enough to save those goons from getting fired at the very least) is that the school *did* have a plausible reason for doing what they did.

They screwed up, hard, no doubt.

On the other hand, I'd like to hear a plausible, non-criminal reason for an individual to have the same pictures, or to set up the same spyware software.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

One difference that I think is important (but not important enough to save those goons from getting fired at the very least) is that the school *did* have a plausible reason for doing what they did.

True, though that doesn't explain away the comments that have been previously reported about some of the staff calling it "our little private cinema" or something like that. (I forget the exact words used.) The Feds may not be able to "prove criminal intent", but there seems to be clear evidence that school staff knew students were being spied on without their knowledge for no sufficient reason, there's documented evidence that students' perfectly legal personal behavior at home was being used against them in school, and the staff involved pretty clearly weren't the least bit concerned about it until it blew up in their faces. It's being whitewashed now as "just an innocent mistake", but as they say down South, "that dog don't hunt." They knew perfectly well what they were doing.

[hannahsarah.livejournal.com]

allegedly including photos of students "partly dressed "

WHAT THE FRELL??? How does that even happen?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Did you miss it when it was in the news?

The short version is, the school district issued laptops with built-in webcams to all students, then covertly activated some of the cameras using a program which they claim was for recovery of lost or stolen laptops. There's no evidence they had any reason to believe that the laptops in question were missing, and at least some evidence that in fact the purpose was to monitor what the students were doing in their own homes. The whole thing came to light when the school hauled one of the students up for discipline on the grounds that his behavior at home failed to adhere to the school's expected moral standards of behavior, using as evidence photos taken without his knowledge with his laptop's webcam. At which point, the shit hit the fan.

Said shit has now all been unceremoniously shoveled under the rug, and the agencies that "investigated" are all stepping carefully around the big lump under the rug and pretending that it doesn't stink.

[hannahsarah.livejournal.com]

Holy cats! I had missed that. I was wondering why the kids were undressing in the classroom. 0_o

Wow, I'd be beyond furious, not only for my kid's sake, but because the school would also be monitoring ME as a parent, and that's none of their damn business. If they think there's a serious problem, they need to be calling CPS, not using super secret spy cameras.

Damn! *shakes head*