> Trouble is from what was said they knew who had it.
Nope, they knew after they had pictures from the webcam, not before.
Suspecting someone has something and having proof that same individual
has it are two different things and usually two different sets of
circumstances too.
It should be noted that the parents filed this suit after they too had
been informed of the possible drug usage and the record of the possible
drug usage wasn't removed from the student's record.
Of course the school knew who had the computers. This assertion that
they didn't is insulting to schools and to teachers. When any kind of
electronics are borrowed from schools by teachers or students there are
records of who has the equipment. Lower Merion is a wealthy district and
they have a lot of equipment, but that doesn't mean that they simply
hand it out to anyone without a record of who borrowed it.
The case of Lower Merion is more like a public library that often
requires some kind of collateral to borrow some equipment. Or for those
instances that don't require collateral [like cash or your driver's
license] they still know who has the material/equipment.
The IT creeps who spied on the students had to know who they were
watching [MAC address, installed software, etc]. Since the
administration also knew who had the computers, it was their
responsibility to contact the parents, as it was also the parents'
responsibility to pay the insurance fee--if they could afford it. There
are areas with low-income families in the district [Ardmore, Narberth],
as well as students who are bused into the schools--no excuse, but not
everyone in the district is upper middle class.
Perhaps the issue isn't the method for distributing computers and the
accompanying fees, along with the spying. The real issue is that the
computers are required at all, and students are required to have them,
take them home, use them for school work, especially since there is very
little evidence that using the computers aids students in learning
more/better/faster. The convenience is more for the schools than for the
students.
Betty
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