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A suburban Philadelphia school district is facing a class action lawsuit for spying on its students by remotely activating the webcam on school assigned laptops.  While the school says it’s merely a security-tracking feature, many are outraged.
 
We're looking at perspectives from KYW, FOX News, CNN, The Huffington Post, Cnet News and Examiner.com
 
The Lower Merion School District says that the cameras were only activated when laptops were missing or stolen, a total of 42 times. Philadelphia's CBS 3 talked with parents who say that this was an extreme invasion of privacy.
 
"We never knew that remotely they could turn on the cameras and invade our privacy without our permission in our houses, in our bedrooms, in our kitchens, while were walking around in our underwear in the morning."

The affluent Philadelphia school district assigns its 2,300 students Apple laptops. But a writer for the Huffington Post says although technology in the classroom is beneficial, officials have no right to use it against the students.
 
"The irony here is that the school district was being very progressive in issuing laptops to students...While it makes sense for school officials to be able to track stolen machines, it would be incredibly wrong for them to use the tracking technology to spy on students."
 
On FOX News, a prosecutor says this move could cost the school district big time.
 
"If it can really be shown in court that this was a just an honest overlooking of policy, a judge might take that into consideration, but the judge may also say that you should have known."

Although many students in the school district have expressed concern, a writer for Cnet News talked to a student who wasn’t too worried about the school spying on students.

“I don't think anyone knows the true story...the problem is in this case is that there are so many rumors going around…[but] I do trust that the school district knows its bounds.”

For most high school students, having a laptop sounds like a pretty good deal, but one writer for the Examiner.com notes that while some things may appear to be free, there is usually a catch.
 
"What you should remember, however, it that when you accept a 'free item" from a local school district or from your state, you become subject to the rules and abuses that come with it."

Many are unsure of what will come of the lawsuit. Two legal experts on CNN are butting heads over whether the school did anything wrong. 
 
"There's going to be criminal charges brought against this school district for doing this. This is illegal, criminal activity by the school."  "This was nonconsensual, this is a big problem for the schools and I believe it’s criminal. That assumes they did it, let’s see what the facts are."
 
So what do you think of the accusations against the Lower Merion School District? Is it an invasion of privacy?
 

Writer: Marlena Kopacz

Producer: Nathan Giannini