Lower Merion High School sophomore Brady McHale writes about the musings, traditions and of course serious matters at his high school.
Early Friday morning Lower Merion high school administrators Sean Hughes and Wagner Marseille spoke with each high school class separately. I sat in on the sophomore meeting where Mr. Hughes began the lecture by apologizing.
Hughes said, “on behalf of my colleagues we apologize for the lack of proper procedures when purchasing and using LANrev software.”
Hughes announced this to the class of roughly 400 students who questioned their principal about how it’s possible that a mistake as big as this was made. Hughes responded to that by saying, “we have strong people here in our school district and even strong people can make mistakes.” A mockingly gasp filled the room followed by a little laughter. Assistant principal Dr. Wagner Marseille spoke briefly about the rumor of the “green light” some students believe that when their cameras turn a green color it means the school district could be watching them. Marseille calmed those fears saying that any program on the school-owned Macbooks can utilize the camera.
After finishing their PowerPoint, in which they cited some pages of this weeks finding from Ballards Spahr, the company investigating for the school district, the two heads opened the floor to students to voice their questions. I directed my question towards Mr. Hughes asking “Why wasn’t there a policy in place to turn the LANrev software off once a computer was located and given back to its owner.”
Hughes, joined by spokesperson for the school Doug Young, said they didn’t know and that’s why they apologize today.
As a class, many of my friends thought it was very professional for the school to speak about the problem. This is the first time since the lawsuit was brought about and the public started to question and even criticize the district.
