Also a good question.
In honest answer, I can only reply....yes.
The difference between the two is that the staff member used the laptop for an illicit purpose, where the student's 'improper' act occurred without interacting with the laptop itself.
To allow a political entity of the State to cancel an enumerated right of the people 'to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures' is a due process violation of the Constitution's 4th Amendment. [Or a violation of US Code, Title 18, Section 242 - Deprivation of rights under color of law]
Had the school contacted police, reported the equipment as stolen, and obtained a warrant BEFORE activating the camera, they would have a legal leg to stand on.
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"Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual."
-- Thomas Jefferson to Isaac H. Tiffany, 1819.
This thread is going to be printed out and handed to every school board member in my District. This will be my full reasoning why it is a REALLY bad idea to hand out technology to students for use outside the school.