(Photo: Fifteen-year-old Blake Robbins and his family claims that the school district used his school-issued laptop webcam to spy on him).

The Lower Merion School District, embroiled in a controversy over accusations of spying via student-issued laptops, has adopted new policies concerning those computers and other technology.

KYW’s Mark Abrams reports  the school board unanimously adopted the new measures which prohibit the district from remotely accessing the student’s laptop unless it has written permission from the student or a parent or guardian.

The policy was prompted by a lawsuit from a student’s family who alleges the district spied on him in his home by way of a camera in his laptop.  A second similar lawsuit was recently filed by Lower Merion graduate.

Lower Merion Superintendent Dr. Christopher McGinley:

“There are a number of safeguards for parents.  Parents have decisions to make throughout all those policies and students themselves have decisions to make about who accesses content on laptops and how that access occurs.”

Last May, a federal judge ordered the district to come up with a new policy regarding the laptops by the beginning of the new school year.

Students return to classes in Lower Merion Sept. 7 and the new laptops are to be issued a few weeks later.

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