Which is the crux of the matter. The responsibility rests on THAT person, no one else.
And even IF it turns out that the laptop was really reported missing or stolen, (and it would be interesting to find out by whom, because it apparently wasn't the boy to whom it was assigned), the school officials were still out of line in confronting the kid about what he was doing in his own room using information they essentially admitted was improperly gained.
If they activated the webcam in response to a report like that, then all they could legally do is use only the information involved in recovering the laptop. Anything else they found by that webcam would be off limits to them as it was not legally obtained. It would be thrown out in a court of law.
Why the school thinks that it's above the law in that respect is beyond me, but that appears to be pretty typical educrat mentality.
Yes, I agree with most of that. Unfortunately, courts have often found schools to indeed be above the law. The technician who activated the camera has already been put on leave by the district, which wouldn’t make sense if there really were a theft report.
From the article, the family did not pay the insurance fee, so the boy was not allowed to take the laptop home with him. If that’s the case, then the school could well have reported it missing. From my own experience, I suspect the district knew very well it was not stolen, but by a technicality, it may well fall within a legitimate “missing” report.
The district did some really bad things (and typical things) but that doesn’t mean they’ll lose the lawsuit.