PHILADELPHIA — A suburban Philadelphia school district says it secretly captured 56,000 webcam photographs and screen shots from laptops issued to high school students.



Lower Merion School District lawyer Henry Hockeimer says an internal investigation shows students likely were photographed inside their homes. He says none of the images appears inappropriate.



A tracking program took images every 15 minutes to find missing computers. Hockeimer says the program sometimes was turned on for months.



Sophomore Blake Robbins is suing the district. He alleges wiretap and privacy violations. He says the district took pictures of him sleeping in bed and half-dressed.



The Philadelphia Inquirer first reported Monday on the number of images recovered.

