Other districts may learn lessons from Lower Merion laptop lawsuit

The webcam spying lawsuit filed against Lower Merion School District has other districts across the country thinking about how to manage the introduction of technology. A Harriton High School sophomore and his parents are suing the district for snapping photos of the student at home through a webcam.

The webcam spying lawsuit filed against Lower Merion School District has other districts across the country thinking about how to manage the introduction of technology. A Harriton High School sophomore and his parents are suing the district for snapping photos of the student at home through a webcam.

Stuart Knade is an attorney for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association. Knade said the controversy has sparked discussions among school officials across the state regarding how to integrate technology in the classrooms. Knade says while classroom computers have benefits, they can also make it difficult for teachers to keep students on task.

Knade: Where is the oversight that we look for in traditional bricks and mortar schools. And people thought of lots of different technological ways that we could police that and some said well, we could have webcams that every so often we would check and see that someone’s sitting at their computer.

Knade says school officials need to have more discussions about what is gained and what could be lost by introducing more technology in the schools.