Student Blake Robbins' suit against the Lower Merion School District charges that officials photographed at home without permission. District officials have since acknowledged that they secretly activated the webcams to find 42 school-issued laptops this school year alone.
Another Harriton High School student moved to enter the case Monday, seeking to stop the school from distributing any of the webcam photographs to lawyers in the case or to anyone else. Robbins' lawyers have asked the school district to surrender any images captured when the webcams were secretly activated.
"Our concern is about not compounding the privacy violations by ensuring that any child whose photograph was taken does not have those photographs released, even to the lawyers," said Witold Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, which joined student Evan Neill's motion.
Neill - like many students interviewed since the suit was filed in February - said he mostly used his laptop in his bedroom. The filing did not suggest that he had ever reported it missing, which might have prompted the school to use its software program to capture images of the user.
"The district ... has used the tracking program to perform unreasonable searches of the homes of students and students' families," the motion charges.
Both state and federal officials are investigating the district for possible wiretap violations.
Only two employees were authorized to activate the cameras, technology coordinator Carol Cafiero and a technician she supervised, according to court filings.
Cafiero tried to fight Robbins' effort to depose her. However, U.S. District Judge Jan DuBois refused to quash the subpoena, ruling last week that she may have information relevant to the case.
DuBois suggested that Cafiero could assert her Fifth Amendment right not to testify at the deposition, if that is a concern. But she has not been indicted or named a target of either investigation, and she did not voice any fear of self-incrimination in her motion to block the subpoena, he said.
Cafiero's lawyer, Charles Mandracchia, did not immediately return a message left at his office after hours Monday.
"We believe that the judge correctly interpreted the law, and we expect Cafiero to comply and appear, and honestly testify as to everything she knows," said Robbins' lawyer, Mark Haltzman.
Cafiero's deposition is now scheduled for Friday.