All Eyes Are On You

Lucy Farmer

The school system has a duty to protect its students from physical and emotional harm. They are responsible for monitoring student’s behavior in order to protect other students. Parents drop their children off at school knowing that their child will be safe while under the administration’s watch. But there is a fine line between basic protection and the infringement of the student’s first amendment rights.
In Philadelphia, Lower Merion School District officials are spying on their students inside their homes with the web cameras installed in the personal laptops issued to every high school student. One particular student, Blake J. Robbins, has filed a lawsuit against the district after his principal accused him of doing inappropriate things in his home. The principal used the photographic evidence from the web cam as proof. The administration claimed that the laptops were issued in order for the students to have 24/7 access to school sites. But in reality, they wanted 24/7 access to the student’s private lives.
It is unnerving and disturbing to know that any school official could see into a student’s bedroom at any given moment. There is a level of privacy that everyone should be ensured. It is ridiculous for a presumptuous school administration to assume that they had the right to peer into young adults’ lives, let alone without any warning or notification. Many high school students are not legally adults, but this does not give any adult the permission to monitor students’ every move at the click of a button.
Basic privacy is a gift that everyone takes for granted. No one goes home expecting someone to be looking through their curtains or watching from across the street with binoculars. No authority has the right to invade our privacy. With new technological advances everyday, this right is slipping away.