Privacy Between a High School and its Students; How Much Should High Schools Really Know About What Goes On Off-Campus?

Written by admin on 24 April 2010

By Zoe L

Privacy is a highly contested topic in America, at both a national and a local level. The majority of Americans feel that they have a basic right to privacy, and as the online world continues to grow and expand, many feel that privacy completely vanishing right before their eyes. As this larger debate goes on, scandals about privacy in American high schools have been popping up in local and national news. How much should high school administrators know about their students’ lives outside the confines of the classroom? Should they try to control students’ behavior at home from a distance? These are some of the questions that have come up related to the issue of privacy among high schools and their students.

Recently, a federal lawsuit was brought against Harrington High School in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania. Students claimed that the school was spying on them (both at home and at school) through webcams in their school-issued laptops. Students were punished by the school for engaging in illegal activities in their homes (such as drinking and smoking marijuana) but the students initially had no way of knowing how the school was aware of their actions until they learned of the webcam images that the school claimed to have. Allegations that school administrators can remotely access the webcams have been neither confirmed nor denied by Lower Merion Unified School District officials.

Ultimately, the students affected by the scandal decided to tape their microphones and webcams, as the school continues to mandate the use of these school-issued computers. Although this seems to be the first big case of a school’s intrusion into students’ lives in the “privacy” of their own homes, it leads us to question how involved any school should become in issues of illegal behavior or bullying that take place outside of school. Most American high schools’ (especially private high schools’) first and foremost priority is the physical and emotional safety of their students. This certainly holds true for UHS, as the administration works tirelessly to make sure we feel happy and safe on campus. However, what happens when we leave campus? It seems that UHS only gets involved with students’ lives outside of school when the safety of the community is put at risk. This is a good policy considering the lengths to which schools such as Harrington High School go to in order to control their students.

High school is a time to build good morals and learn how to be positive part of larger society, and so it is understandable that a school might want to be involved in issues that go against the values of the community and negatively impact students’ experiences. But the actions of administrators at Harrington High School must be looked at as not only completely disrespectful, but also completely illegal. In 2001, the Supreme Court restored the privacy of homes when it ruled that police could not use thermal imaging to detect heat lamps used for growing marijuana, as people felt that the technology was a huge invasion of privacy. Using web imaging to spy on students does not seem all that different, and as this case against Harrington High School climbs through the judicial system it will be interesting to see how it is handled as a privacy issue. Luckily, UHS administrators would never dream of doing anything like this to us, and we don’t have school-issued laptops, so we can all go home and rest assured knowing that Alex Lockett won’t be spying on us tonight as we dance around and pose in front of PhotoBooth.

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