As parents who consider the teachers and officials at our schools to be respected partners in educating our children as well as people to whom we entrust some of the work of molding their character, including their understanding of moral behavior, we wish to express our solidarity with Dr. Christopher W. McGinley, the Superintendent of Schools for the Lower Merion School District and the Board of Directors, as they handle the issue of privacy with regard to the free laptop program.
We are aware that the addition of security- tracking software to laptops on loan should have been clearly communicated to students and parents alike, but we do not believe that there was any malice or duplicity underlying the omission. It was a misstep that could have been avoided, but we do not believe that it was done deliberately. We understand that the feature was activated only when a laptop was reported missing, or when it had been removed without authorization, and that over one third of those laptops were recovered through its use without any complaint.
We understand that the use of the webcam feature on the laptops is optional and that students routinely appreciate its existence and use it frequently even though there is no requirement that they do so, and that they are free to disable the feature by placing tape over it. As such, we value the trust placed in the integrity and good sense of our children, and the expectation that the learning of discretion and honorable behavior is as important a part of their education in this school system, as the acquisition of graded skills.
We believe that our children are both willing and able to rise up to the standards of behavior expected of them as students who have been given access to personal laptops, a program that is not available to most students in this country, and that we have done our part, as their parents, to ensure that they understand the responsibilities that come with it.
We therefore stand together as parents who value the work of the remarkable human beings in whose care we place our children, both teachers and all staff, from the janitors who manage the facilities to the administrative officials who form policy, and call for a non-litigious end to this issue which has only served to detract from the far more important work of addressing their educational needs.