Costs awarded in Pa. school webcam case

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- A Pennsylvania school district must pay a lawyer who sued the district for allegedly monitoring students through their computer webcams, a judge has ruled.

Senior U.S. District Judge Jan E. DuBois said Lower Merion School District must pay about $260,000 now -- and potentially much more later -- in costs to attorney Mark S. Haltzman for work that resulted in a preliminary injunction in May, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

The injunction banned district school employees from activating webcams on students' district-issued laptop computers without their consent.

The order came in a bitter battle over fees in an ongoing legal fight that could cost district taxpayers several million dollars.

Still unresolved is the original lawsuit Haltzman filed for Harriton High School student Blake Robbins and his parents, claiming Lower Merion staff members spied on students through the webcams.

The district contends it activated the software only when laptops were lost or missing.

Haltzman had asked Lower Merion to pay him more than $435,000 in fees and expenses incurred through July investigating the Robbinses' claims and initiating a proposed class-action lawsuit.

In class-action cases, plaintiffs' legal fees normally become part of a settlement, the Inquirer said.