Lower Merion webcam victim accused of driving unregistered vehicle

A Lower Merion student who alleged that Harriton High School officials used a webcam to spy on him, then made the charges stick in court, has been cited for vehicle-code violations in Lower Merion.

Blake J. Robbins, 17, of the 400 block of Hidden River Road, Penn Valley, was cited Nov. 26 by Lower Merion police officer Stephen M. Salera for driving an unregistered vehicle and displaying a license plate on the wrong vehicle.

Robbins and his parents, Michael and Holly, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Court records show traffic citations were filed Nov. 30 at Magisterial District Judge Kathleen M. Valentine's court in Ardmore.

The records indicate that court officials were waiting for Robbins, a juvenile, to enter a plea. Both are summary offenses, which means that Robbins could plead guilty and pay a fine, or request a hearing at the District Court level, said Michael J. McGrath, Lower Merion's Superintendent of Police.

McGrath said he couldn't comment on the specifics of the case because Robbins is a juvenile.

Robbins, then a 15-year-old sophomore at Harriton High, and his parents made headlines in February 2010 when they filed a federal lawsuit claiming that the Lower Merion School District used the webcam on his school-issued laptop to snap pictures of him at home.

In one photo, Robbins was seen asleep in his bed. The photos were snapped from the laptop which was sitting open in his bedroom.

The suit was settled in October 2010 for $175,000; most of the money was placed in trust until Robbins turns 18. Robbins told a reporter at the time that he'd get a slice - $25,000 - that he said he would spend on "some nice used car."

The lawsuit claimed the district could turn on the webcams remotely and illegally invade the privacy of students.

A school district spokesman, Doug Young, said the laptops had a built-in security feature to snap photos of the user, if the machine was reported stolen. But the webcams snapped away, capturing thousands of images of school children.

The lawsuit led the district to acknowledge flaws in the planning and oversight of the system it had used for two years to track missing computers.

The case catapulted the Robbins family and the district into the spotlight and stirred debate about the use of technology in schools.