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School Spied on Student via Webcam!

 
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Konglishman



Joined: 14 Sep 2007
Location: Nanjing

PostPosted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 6:56 pm    Post subject: School Spied on Student via Webcam! Reply with quote

http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/school-allegedly-spied-via-web-cams-19196035#video=19196035

I have to say that I find it absolutely astounding that a school would do this. Really, how can a school justify such an action? School administrators simply cannot pretend to be good examples to students when they are in fact involved in such a blatant breach of trust.
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bacasper



Joined: 26 Mar 2007

PostPosted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 7:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Give-a-Kid-a-Laptop program was apparently a plot by pedovoyeurs. Neutral
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Fox



Joined: 04 Mar 2009

PostPosted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 8:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pretty inappropriate behavior by the school, but I wonder about the lawsuit too. If the lawsuit is just an attempt to get this behavior stopped, that's good. If it's some family trying to seize taxpayer money, it's contemptible.

The courts ruling that schools must immediately cease this behavior is good. The courts charging individual administrators at the school with a crime is reasonable enough. But this family of bumpkins being handed tax payer money is totally unreasonable.
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Konglishman



Joined: 14 Sep 2007
Location: Nanjing

PostPosted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 8:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Fox wrote:
Pretty inappropriate behavior by the school, but I wonder about the lawsuit too. If the lawsuit is just an attempt to get this behavior stopped, that's good. If it's some family trying to seize taxpayer money, it's contemptible.

The courts ruling that schools must immediately cease this behavior is good. The courts charging individual administrators at the school with a crime is reasonable enough. But this family of bumpkins being handed tax payer money is totally unreasonable.


At the very least, they should be awarded money to cover the legal expenses. Also, in cases such as this, I would say forcing the government to pay individual's money, creates a strong incentive to prevent a reoccurance of this. Further, if it was up to me and I was in charge of the school district, I would say that this money is coming out of the school administrator's pay or whoever was responsible for approving this decision.

Anyways, why are you calling them bumpkins? That is certainly awefully elitist of you.
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Fox



Joined: 04 Mar 2009

PostPosted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 8:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Konglishman wrote:
At the very least, they should be awarded money to cover the legal expenses.


So long as the award comes from individual administrators who broke the law, rather than out of taxpayer pockets, that's fine. If a single cent comes out of public coffers to be given to these people, though, it's unacceptable.

Konglishman wrote:
Also, in cases such as this, I would say forcing the government to pay individual's money, creates a strong incentive to prevent a reoccurance of this.


No it won't, it will just result in taxpayer money being seized and handed to these bumpkins who won the "U.S. Legal System Lottery" by being the victims of a crime enacted by someone who happened to be a U.S. Government employee. Punish the individuals who broke the law, not the taxpayers. The taxpayers didn't take pictures of their kids. The taxpayers didn't know anything about this.

The government doesn't suffer if tax money is seized by the courts and handed to people. Only the people who would otherwise have benefitted from the programs funded by that money suffer. As such, this isn't an incentive for the government at all.

Konglishman wrote:
Further, if it was up to me and I was in charge of the school district, I would say that this money is coming out of the school administrator's pay or whoever was responsible for approving this decision.


And when the amount awarded by the inane, lottery-mentality jury exceeds the yearly pay of all the people involved in this combined (which of course it would, since the amount awarded is always reflective of how deep the pockets of the defendant are, and the government's pockets are quite deep), that will just mean they quit, leaving the taxpayer to take up the burden anyway.

Konglishman wrote:
Anyways, why are you calling them bumpkins? That is certainly awefully elitist of you.


I'm calling them bumpkins because they're trying to seize taxpayer funds with legal action, the mark of a small minded, greedy person who is either unfamiliar with the basics of society, or simply doesn't care. If looking down on people who try to take advantage of a situation like this to make money at the expense of their fellow man is elitist, then I guess I'm elitist. They're still greedy bumpkins hoping to make a buck (unless their lawsuit doesn't ask for any money beyond legal expenses, in which case as I said I take no issue with it).
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bacasper



Joined: 26 Mar 2007

PostPosted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 10:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Fox wrote:
Konglishman wrote:
At the very least, they should be awarded money to cover the legal expenses.


So long as the award comes from individual administrators who broke the law, rather than out of taxpayer pockets, that's fine. If a single cent comes out of public coffers to be given to these people, though, it's unacceptable.

In such cases, at least on the federal level, these people can besued in their individual or official capacities (or both). That will determine from where any award should come.

Konglishman wrote:
Also, in cases such as this, I would say forcing the government to pay individual's money, creates a strong incentive to prevent a reoccurance of this.

That's the theory, at least.
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Fox



Joined: 04 Mar 2009

PostPosted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 11:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

bacasper wrote:
Fox wrote:
Konglishman wrote:
At the very least, they should be awarded money to cover the legal expenses.


So long as the award comes from individual administrators who broke the law, rather than out of taxpayer pockets, that's fine. If a single cent comes out of public coffers to be given to these people, though, it's unacceptable.


In such cases, at least on the federal level, these people can besued in their individual or official capacities (or both). That will determine from where any award should come.


Right, which of course means they'll be sued in their official capacity, because lawyers know the government has far more money than the actual person who committed the crime. This needs to change to prevent people like the bumpkin family from sucking up taxpayer funds with their lawsuits. What happened to the kids at this school is regrettable, and should be prevented in the future, but I don't think it's fair to seize taxpayer funds and hand them over to these lottery-mentality grubs.

It would seem quite a few parents in the district agree with me.

Quote:
Three sets of parents of students at Lower Merion and Harriton high schools filed documents in federal court Thursday asking for permission to intervene in the case.

The family of 15-year-old Harriton High School student Blake Robbins is seeking class-action status for a lawsuit accusing the Lower Merion School District of photographing him in his bedroom. The district has said it activated the cameras only to locate missing laptops.

Parents who object to the lawsuit say they are angry about the webcams but are concerned about the financial impact of a class-action settlement. Nearly 500 district parents have signed a petition opposing the class-action suit.

"We see no benefit to the school district or to the students if a large damage award is gained by the plaintiffs," said Larry Silver, one of several attorneys for the anti-lawsuit group. He also has a child in the wealthy school district on Philadelphia's Main Line.

"We want a positive resolution to this matter," he said. "We want them to get back to their educational mission."

In their complaint submitted in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, they requested hiring an independent public advocate, permanently banning laptop webcam use by the district and implementing new regulations on the proper use of technologies.


It's good to see people standing up against the lottery mentality and realizing that this kind of lawsuit only hurts average people who did absolutely nothing wrong. Lawyers smell money and are goading the bumpkins on, but parents are resisting, and that's good. Lawsuits like this should be about stopping problematic activity, not handing the Robbins family and their lawyer money.
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The Happy Warrior



Joined: 10 Feb 2010

PostPosted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 11:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

bacasper wrote:
Fox wrote:
Konglishman wrote:
At the very least, they should be awarded money to cover the legal expenses.


So long as the award comes from individual administrators who broke the law, rather than out of taxpayer pockets, that's fine. If a single cent comes out of public coffers to be given to these people, though, it's unacceptable.

In such cases, at least on the federal level, these people can besued in their individual or official capacities (or both). That will determine from where any award should come.


I haven't checked Pennsylvania law (and I don't think I will). But since we're talking about the Federal level, I should point you all towards 28 U.S.C. � 2674

Quote:
The United States shall be liable, respecting the provisions of this title relating to tort claims, in the same manner and to the same extent as a private individual under like circumstances, but shall not be liable for interest prior to judgment or for punitive damages.


That means suits against the US under congressional granted exceptions to sovereign immunity allow for compensatory damages but no punitive damages.

Molzof v. United States, 502 U.S. 301 (1992) considered it compensatory damages when damages consisting of future medical expenses and loss of enjoyment of life for a veteran suing a gov't hospital for negligence.
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bacasper



Joined: 26 Mar 2007

PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 7:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

In any event, just how much could being photographed without your permission or knowledge be worth?

Perhaps a lot, if they go through with the child sex abuse witchhunt angle they seemed to be playing up when they mentioned that the student was photographed in his underwear. I suppose they will argue that he now faces a lifetime of trauma costing hundreds of thousands in psychiatry bills, plus punitive damages. They'll get some victimological "experts" on the stand to say that, and no one will refute it for fear of being accused of being a pedophile or enabler himself.

Will it ever end?
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Fox



Joined: 04 Mar 2009

PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 3:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

bacasper wrote:
Will it ever end?


Probably not. The psychological tactics involved are too effective, and unlike other things that have been the focus of witch hunts (like Communism), the key factor isn't simply going to become trivial. People will always care about their kids, so the people perpetuating this witch hunt will always have fodder to work with.

It's a hard road to turn back from once you start down it.
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bacasper



Joined: 26 Mar 2007

PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 8:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Fox wrote:
bacasper wrote:
Will it ever end?


Probably not. The psychological tactics involved are too effective, and unlike other things that have been the focus of witch hunts (like Communism), the key factor isn't simply going to become trivial. People will always care about their kids, so the people perpetuating this witch hunt will always have fodder to work with.

It's a hard road to turn back from once you start down it.

All witchhunts eventually come to an end after they, if for no other reason itthan they have cannibalized the entire population. When just about everyone gets touched by they begin to see its folly.

Now, we have not only observed this one go all the way up to the Pope, but it is beginning to devour the same kids it was sold to us as protecting, as in the case of this 15-year-old executed by his father because of sex play with his little sister.

Teen Confesses To Molesting Sister, Dad Executes Him

Jamar Pinkney Sr. Could Face Life in Prison if Convicted

By EMILY FRIEDMAN
Nov. 19, 2009

Quote:

A 15-year-old boy who was killed by his father in an execution style killing spent the last moments of his life pleading, "No, Daddy! No!"

Jamar Pinkney Jr. was shot in the head Monday by his 37-year-old father, Jamar Pinkney Sr., who allegedly made the teen strip his clothes off and kneel in a vacant lot before he was killed by a single bullet.

The boy's mother, Lazette Cherry, told the Detroit Free Press that Pinkney Sr., showed up at her Highland Park, Mich., home after she told him that their son had made a startling confession.

According to Cherry, the 15-year-old had admitted to having "inappropriate contact" with his 3-year-old half sister.

"I called and told his father this isn't something you sweep under the rug," Cherry, who was unable to be reached by ABCNews.com, told the paper.
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