U.S. Attorney, FBI join investigation of Lower Merion

The U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI said today that they would investigate whether the Lower Merion School District activated webcams on the laptop computers that were issued to students.

"We intend to work as a team with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office, the Montgomery County Detectives, and the Lower Merion Police Department to determine if any crimes were committed," U.S. Attorney Michael L. Levy said in a statement.

"The issues raised by these allegations are wide-ranging and involve the meeting of the new world of cyberspace with that of physical space. Our focus will only be on whether anyone committed any crimes."

A lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court accuses district officials of using a webcam on the school-issued laptop computer of a Harriton High School sophomore to spy on the boy and other students at their homes without warning.

Blake Robbins, 15, was confronted in November by an assistant principal who used a photo from the webcam to accuse the teen of engaging in "improper behavior" at home, says the lawsuit, brought by Robbins' parents.

The school district contends that the webcam devices were a security feature activated only on laptops that had been reported lost or stolen.

Federal law enforcement agencies typically don't confirm an investigation, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in the release. The Department of Justice has an exception for matters that have received substantial publicity, or matters in which the department feels the need to reassure the community that law enforcement is investigating the incident, according to the statement.

Levy said that "very few facts are known" about the case and that "we do not intend to comment any further before our investigation is complete."