A message to students and faculty of Herriton Senior High, LMSD, Pennsylvania web cam s

This too, shall pass...

How do you want it to end?

I was incensed when I heard about the Blake J. Robbins v. LMSD case.  A Pennsylvania school district using a computer web cam to spy on students in the privacy of their own homes?  You knew they and their parents would be in a state of undress at times?  And none of you stopped to pause and question, "is this right?"

My anger is gone.  So, too will the international attention be gone.  The nation will focus on other problems leaving your community to fend for itself, or tear it's self apart.

What will it be?

Reconciliation begins with each person.  Is it time to admit errors and move along?  Is it time to start working on re-building trust?  Are you the future leaders of the nation?

Or is it the fate of your community to spend the next several years in destructive division?  Neighbor against neighbor, student against student, families, students, faculty that have been friends for years doing battle?  In this case, battle does not have to be overt...just leave the coals in the fire...

I personally think someone made some huge judgment errors.  Peering into the private homes of students right in front of the noses of their parents - just because they are students - was a violation of the things we hold dear in our constitution.  However...what will a continued battle do?

Which of the two evils is greater?  The trampling of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, or the shredding of the community afterwards?

I don't have the answers.  To all concerned, this too, shall pass! 

Life may be hell right now, especially for school administrators and faculty.  You will get through it.  Good things will likely come from this.  Those who are in crisis think their crisis is the worst.  You can always find some one suffering more!

The question is, will you all help each other, or will the blow-hards win?  The problem with national attention is community egos rise.  The so-called community leaders rush in looing for their chance at the limelight.  Everyone retreats to their corner.  No one can back down, heck, someone might see! 

Not enough people are willing to do what is best for the greater good, your community, your shcool, the nation.  Are they?

Solutions to problems like these come from within.  Your hearts will tell you what the solution is.  Those who ignore their hearts will grow angrier as each day passes.  They will justify their anger by driving a wedge down the spine of your wonderful community. 

Is that what you want?

Those who listen to their hearts will start forgiving, start looking for solutions, start working for unity.  Settle this suit and let's move on!

Let me give you a poem that has always hit home for me.  Perhaps it applies, perhaps not.

Amo el canto del zentzontle
Pájaro de cuatrocientas voces
Amo el color del jade
Y el enervante perfume de las flores
Pero amo más a mi hermano el hombre.

Can't read it?  Translate it.  Go to your Spanish dictionary.  It will mean more to you that way.  But if you are not willing to do that, google the first phrase and I bet you will find it in my next blog!

Dios te bendiga,

Tim

LMSD Folding Tent, Computer Web cam in schools, FBI investigates school spy cam, Pensylvania school due for court

When the tent should fold

rather than the show always going on

You can bet things are getting a little out of hand in the Rosemont, Pennsylvania web cam case. By now just about everyone on the planet knows the Lower Merion School District and Chris McGinley are in a heap of trouble for spying on Blake Robbins using school issued computer web cams.

The question is, where do we go from here?

A good attorney assess his case before he begins to bellow. If I were looking at a class action law suit staring my client down the throat, plus the possibility of criminal charges, my advice would be to put the ego on the shelf and eat crow.

Not likely here, the show must always go on!

Folding the big top early in a case like this can solve a lot of problems. Right now, this is mostly about egos and outrageous acts and the violation of Constitutional rights and the excitement of being the center of national attention. A little later this is going to be about money, free college educations and legal precedents. It is going to be a lot cheaper to settle this case now and swallow cud then if the wild fire blazes out of control.

"The school board should make a healthy financial contribution to someone, somewhere"

Swallowing cud is an expression folks in cow and ranching country use to say, "Stop the grandstanding, Herbert.  You are about to cost us a lot of money!"

How do you do that? The school district admits guilt without extending that guilt to any of the parties involved. It takes a bit of lawyering talent and speaking out of both sides of your mouth, but in case criminal charges are filed, it is a necessary step. It can also sway the decision to file criminal charges in the first place when all parties cry ‘no ball no foul’ and get back to the game.

Assuming you buy my theory, along with a massive loss of face, the school district should make a healthy financial contribution to someone somewhere. Sometimes it comes in the form of money damages to the Plaintiff, in this case, Master Robbin. They could throw in a free trip to Washington DC for the LMSD school board and administrators so each can study the Constitution on home ground. Of course, the students might go along, all expenses paid, too.  Someone needs to make sure the school officials hit the books!

Follow link to buy Mike and Ike's in bulk!

Sometimes these kinds of settlements can cost a little more or a little less, but one thing is for sure:  If the Plaintiffs are able to prove their case and the super lawyers have to invest an ocean of time and buy laptops for an army of newly hired paralegals, it is going to cost a lot more in the long run. Judges are more likely to listen to the ‘no jail time’ argument if it gets to the criminal phase, as well.  And the Robbins family gets to stick around the community.

What am I talking about? An unanticipated side effect for being in the middle of a community split is the over-whelming sense that one is not welcome by all of those guys on the other side of the grand canyon.  If the self appointed arbiters of justice, the LMSD Parents, keep whipping up the spray, along with a gleeful press, the split will only widen.

For example, surfing the web, I found an immigrant who titled his blog The innocent righteous who thinks spying on children while in their home with mum is fine.  He has three daughters at Herriton Senior High School.  Do you think he would change his mind if a pic of one of his daughters shows up on the school spy pic site?

"Judges are more likley to listen to 'no jail time' arguments

from attorneys"

We know it is too late for reconciliation.

Or maybe we don't know. 

While I personally think intentions to bust the laws of privacy and the notions of decency into a billion pieces were very clear, and likely criminal, at the end of the day aren't we all sure these are pretty decent people?   We all make mistakes.  For the Robbins family, the LMSD, the students and faculty at Herriton Senior High School and the community, continuing this battle will be yet another mistake.  At least it will be quite a show!  Hey Lyn, pass me another box of  Mike and Ike's!

Tim Paynter is an attorney, a free lance writer, an activist for the rights of immigrants, children’s rights, the poor and the oppressed. Paynter says part of his inspiration comes from having an immigrant grandfather and once being a child.

Larry Silver speaks photo from from main line media  Other photos from

google images, the big top tent, and various sites on the web.

Child clings to life, family needs help, can U?

Eduardo Salazar fights a rare childhood illness, HLH, no insurance

It always helps me to put things into perspective.  I feel for Blake Robbins as he posed for his school administrators on his computer web cam, maybe dressed and maybe naked, according to speculation.  The issue is, he didn't know he was being watched at all!  The school admits to playing peeping tom and invading the privacy every 15 year old should expect to have.

Meanwhile, an 11 year old is having a time of it, as well.  He wants to be a soccer star.  Right now, he is fighting for his life.  The family is seeking donations.

I have stayed off of the story for quite awhile.  My Salazar family contact is heart broken.  Insisting on the latest news would be unfair.  Suffice it to say, after multiple operations, the removal of a healthy part of eduardo's colon, and a lot of support from those who know these wonderful people, the tike is still with us!

If you are in from Heriton Senior High School, or from anywhere for that matter, why not take a few minutes away from the whirl wind of fate and count your blessings.  After that, if you feel a twinge in your heart, why not send the Salazar family a donation?  Their problems are a lot bigger than mine!

Tim Paynter

Attorney at Law

120 South Kalamath St.

Denver, Co., 80223

Pennsylvania web cam spying - case study in how computers saved school, Blake Robbins

Urban School Justifies 
Web Cam 
Pennsylvania spy cam violates human dignity 
FBI investigating

FRONTLINE: digital nation: learning: schools: how google saved a school PBS

There are two problems with the spy cams in laptops sent home with students of Herriton Senior High School in Pennsylvania.  First, the Lower Marion School District didn't bother to tell the students they had the capability of remote viewing, much less viewing at all.  Second, even with disclosure, the cameras can be activated unilaterally, that is, by the school staff without the student knowing it.

You can bet when the school administor excitedly gave the news to the students about being one of the first schools to send laptops home with them he was grinning ear to ear like a chesire cat!  He must have known the spy technology was there and the school planned to use it yet he said nothing.  Laptop page here!

"Every high school student will have their own person laptop enabling an authentic movile 21st century learning environment"

Presumably, only two people were allowed to screen images taken without the student's permission.  That is a stretch of the truth, as we know the assistand vice principal of Herriton Senior High School Lindy Matsko presented Blake Robbins with a picture the school took of him while he feasted on Mike and Ikes candies in the privacy of his home.  Are there two photo people, one for each sex?  Or is looking at pics on the internet only a guy's thing?

"Coud there be something more to the smile?"

This represents a major breach of trust between Herriton faculty and the student population.  How can a young girl or a young boy know the smile on an administrator's face is based solely on good tidings towards the student?  Could there be something more to the smile?  Does the person know something maybe they should not?  Did the teacher or disciplinarian get a first hand peep at private parts or sexual activity?

What if one of those students got caught in homosexual activity and the administrator knows?  Not all administrators are liberal thinking, while others might try to pry when they should not.  We know that did not happen at Herriton Senior High School, but it will eventually happen somewhere if this trend continues. 

Actually, do we know it didn't happen at Herriton High? 

That is the problem.  We don't know. 



Presumably, the school staff is telling the truth about who had access to the videos.  However, when the staff violated, as in raped, the trust of the students by using this secret technology, all trust went out the window.  Trust is something earned, not bought or demanded.  It will take a long time for trust to grow, and for the smile on administrator's faces and likely for some, the thoughts behind the smiles to be taken seriously. 

"Let's let the students drop in on teacher and

 administrator lap tops"

The second problem with the spy cam is it can be activated without student consent and perhaps without student knowlede.  Even if a green light indicates the government is peeping in, one would have to be constantly vigilant to know exactly when the camera is activated.  Laptops would need to be carefully guarded and strategically placed to protect privacy.  That is an unfair task to put on anyone and eventually sure to fail.

If we are going put the task of constant vigilence upon the student body then it seems only fair to reciprocate.  Let's let the students drop in on teacher and administrator lap tops whenever they wish.  It would be interesting to see what really goes on in the teacher's lounge!  Violation of any kind always seem better to the person who violates than to the person violated.  Put the shoe on the other foot, tell us how it feels!

"Hey Mindy, yeah, Ms. Matsko, Uhh you might want to turn your computer off...or at least turn it the other direction.  There are people watching!"

The school in the public service Front Line video implies the ability to watch students saved the school. Such an interpretation is a stretch. What may have saved the schools was an introduction of modern day technology. Use of the cams is another matter.

At least the students understood the cams could be activated. In addition, the computers didn't leave the school as far as I can tell. That keeps the computers on the desk and not in bedrooms and private places. Activation is still an invasion of privacy, but at least the chances of catching an under age boy or girl in states of undress, or while he or she explores kissing and intimacy, are highly reduced when the computer stays in the school.

My vote, vote for Blake Robbins and the family that has the guts to stand up against unlawful instrusion.  Protect your privacy rights now.  If you don't, tomorrow will be too late!