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A suburban Philadelphia school district used school-issued laptop Webcams to spy on students at home, a family claims in a federal lawsuit. Lower Merion School District officials can activate the Webcams without students' knowledge or permission, the suit said. The plaintiffs, Michael and Holly Robbins, suspect the cameras captured students and family members as they undressed and in other embarrassing situations. The district prides itself on its technology initiatives, including giving laptops to its 2,300 high school students. The district could not immediately confirm whether it has the ability to activate the Webcams remotely, a spokesman said. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A BANNER over the doors at Boys and Girls High School, a 3,600-student brick behemoth on Fulton Street in Brooklyn, greets arriving students with the school's longstanding slogan. ''Pride and Joy of Bed/Stuy,'' it reads, in red letters. For Darrius Spann, a former student who was riding the E train the other day to his part-time job as a security guard, the words ring hollow. Mr. Spann first arrived at the school, as a 15-year-old student with a learning disability, in 2003, when enrollment there was closer to 5,000. He missed classes and was late several times, and before long he was suspended. When he returned, he says, administrators told him he would be on a reduced schedule, discharged after five periods instead of eight. Weeks later his schedule was shortened again, from five periods to three. Finally, the next semester, he was assigned to sit in an auditorium with about 100 other students from 7:30 to 10:30 each morning, filling out school worksheets before going home. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]