Courts - Pennsylvania Insurer won't pay school district's legal costs in webcam spying Says costs are not covered under personal injury policy with district

By Maryclaire Dale Associated Press Writer PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- An insurance company is balking at paying legal costs for a suburban Philadelphia school district accused of spying on students through laptop webcams. Meanwhile, a lawyer for a student suing the Lower Merion School District said the two sides met for several hours Wednesday but are far from reaching a settlement. Sophomore Blake Robbins charges that the district invaded his privacy when it remotely activated a webcam to take photographs of him at home, sometimes when he was in bed or partially undressed. "No settlement can take place until the full scope of the spying on Blake and the other students is fully known," lawyer Mark Haltzman told The Associated Press on Thursday. The district admits it secretly captured at least 56,000 images through the remote tracking program, but said it did so only to locate lost or stolen laptops. More than half of that total came from a set of six laptops stolen from a school gym. The tracking program was left on for months, and helped identify a suspect who was later prosecuted. The school district did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday on the status of negotiations in the case, or on a lawsuit suit filed last week by its insurer. In its suit, Graphic Arts Mutual Insurance Company said that costs stemming from the Robbins lawsuit are not covered under its personal injury policy with the district. The insurance company's stance, if upheld, could leave the district responsible for litigation and any settlement costs. The district has admitted its policies about when to turn the software on and off were lax at best. In five cases, the program was left on long after students reported they had found their school-issued laptops. At a school board meeting this week, school district lawyer Henry Hockeimer said there was no intentional wrongdoing by the district, "but clearly those trackings should have been turned off earlier." Robbins argues that he never reported his missing, and doesn't understood why the program was activated. In a court filing, technology coordinator Carol Cafiero argues that Robbins had damaged or destroyed two other school laptops, and failed to pay the required $55 insurance fee on the one he had. He therefore had no right to bring the laptop home, or any expectation of privacy, her lawyer wrote. The Robbinses, in their lawsuit, have zeroed in on Cafiero's actions, accusing her of being a possible "voyeur" and demanding the right to inspect her personal laptop to see if she moved any of the student images to it. Haltzman reiterated Thursday that he cannot entertain settlement discussions until he reviews the contents of her home computer. Cafiero, one of two employees authorized to activate the tracking program, has admitted she refused to answer his questions at her deposition in the civil suit, invoking her Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination. However, she has said in television interviews that she cooperated during an interview Wednesday with the FBI, which is investigating potential wiretap violations, and said there is no reason she should have to surrender her home computer. Cafiero "vehemently denies" downloading any pictures of students, her lawyer, Charles Mandracchia, wrote in a court filing this week. "Mrs. Cafiero is not a voyeur," the filing states. "This scandalous, malicious and abusive attack on Mrs. Cafiero's character, in essence labeling her a sexual deviant, is false, outrageous and without any basis." Published: Fri, Apr 23, 2010

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