The ‘Spy High' Digital Dystopia: Amazon Doc Probes Student Surveillance Harms
School (in)Security is our biweekly briefing on the latest school safety news, vetted by Mark Keierleber. Subscribe here.
It all began when school officials mistook a blurry image of a Mike and Ike candy for pills.
Pennsylvania teenager Blake Robbins found himself at the center of a digital surveillance controversy that gave rise to student privacy debates amid schools' growing reliance on ed tech.
Spy High, a four-part documentary series streaming now on Amazon Prime, puts the focus on a lawsuit filed in 2010 after Robbins' affluent Pennsylvania school district accused him of dealing drugs — a conclusion officials reached after they surreptitiously snapped a photo of him at home with the chewy candy in hand.
The moment had been captured on the webcam of his school-issued laptop — one of some 66,000 covert student images collected by the district, including one of Robbins asleep in his bed.
I caught up with Spy High Director Jody McVeigh-Schultz to discuss why the 15-year-old case offers cautionary lessons about student surveillance gone awry and how it informs contemporary student privacy debates.
Read the full interview here.
How student surveillance plays out today: Meet the gatekeepers of students' private lives. | The 74
Courts block DEI directive: Three federal courts ordered temporary halts on Thursday to Trump's efforts to cancel student diversity initiatives — and demands for states to pledge allegiance to the administration's interpretation of civil rights laws. | The 74President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday that called for school discipline models 'rooted in American values and traditional virtues,' taking aim at Obama- and Biden-era efforts to reduce racial disparities in suspensions and expulsions. | Politico
'The history there is deeply, deeply disturbed': Disability-rights advocates have decried plans at the National Institutes of Health to compile Amerians' private medical records in a 'disease registry' to track children and other people with autism. | The 74
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., faced criticism for recent comments that many kids 'were fully functional and regressed because of some environmental exposure into autism when they're 2 years old.' | ABC News
A new lawsuit filed by students at military-run schools accuses the Defense Department of harming their learning opportunities by banning books related to 'gender ideology' or 'divisive equity ideology,' including texts that refer to slavery and sexual harassment prevention. | Military Times
Get the most critical news and information about students' rights, safety and well-being delivered straight to your inbox.
California lawmakers are demanding answers after Department of Homeland Security agents visited two Los Angeles elementary schools and asked to speak with five students who the federal agency said 'arrived unaccompanied at the border.' | LAist
'We all deserve reparations': White House aide Stephen Miller said in an interview last week the country 'used to have a functioning public school system' until it was destroyed by 'open borders.' | The New Republic
The Justice Department seized thousands of photos and videos in an investigation of a former University of Michigan assistant football coach who was indicted on allegations he hacked into student athletes' private accounts to steal intimate images. | CBS Sports
A 48-year-old mother was arrested and accused of bringing a gun to her daughter's Indiana elementary school and threatening the girl's teacher over a classroom assignment about flags. While discussing flags, the teacher reportedly referred to a rainbow flag in the classroom with the words 'be kind.' | NBC News
Banning 'frontal nudity': A Texas school district has removed lessons on Virginia history from an online learning platform for elementary school students because the commonwealth's flag depicts the Roman goddess Virtus with an exposed breast. | Axios
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments next month to weigh Trump's executive order eliminating birthright citizenship, bringing into question a 127-year-old court precedent. | NPR
A class-action lawsuit accuses tech giant Google of amassing 'thousands of data points that span a child's life' without the consent of students or their parents. | Bloomberg Law
A Florida teacher is out of a job after she called a student by their preferred name, allegedly violating a 2023 Florida law that requires schools to receive parental permission to refer to students by anything other than their legal names. | Click Orlando
The vice president of the Buffalo, New York, chapter of Bikers Against Child Abuse was arrested and accused of sex crimes against children. | WIVB
Supreme Court Shows Support for Parents Who Want Opt-Outs from LGBTQ Storybooks
'There Goes My Son's Help:' Wave of Washington Head Starts Shut Down as Chaos Engulfs Federal Program
State Officials Sue Trump Administration for Halting COVID School Aid
Protecting Children Online Takes Technology, Human Oversight and Accountability
Don't even think about touching Matilda's cactus.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNBC
23 minutes ago
- CNBC
'Collateral damage': Fund managers lobby Congress over Section 899 to avert foreign investors leaving the U.S.
American fund managers are lobbying Congress over a provision tucked inside President Donald Trump's tax bill that they say could lead to foreign investors "quickly" pulling investments out of the U.S. The "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," which passed through the U.S. House of Representatives in May, aims to penalize foreign-owned firms operating in the U.S. and that are from countries with "unfair foreign taxes" under a provision known as Section 899. It is currently being considered by the Senate. The Investment Company Institute (ICI), which represents fund houses in the U.S., is lobbying Congress for an amendment as it warns the bill in its current form also impacts most foreign investments in U.S. stock markets, according to documents seen by CNBC. "In order to avoid the impact of section 899, portfolio investors are likely to retreat quickly from US equities, leading to capital outflows from the United States," the ICI said in a letter sent to Senator Mike Crapo, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, on June 5. "If sustained selling by foreign investors depresses US equity markets, this would harm both US companies and investors." Section 899 aims to introduce retaliatory tax measures against entities from countries that have levies such as the Digital Services Taxes and the OECD's global minimum tax rules. If signed into law, it could impact investors from the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Switzerland, among others. The tax would start at 5% and escalate by five percentage points annually to a maximum of 20%, on top of existing taxes, which vary by country and tax treaties. That could dent returns for foreign investors in U.S. equities. In the letter, the ICI also suggests that the U.S. fund management industry, which has collectively invested around $18 trillion in U.S. stock markets, would be "collateral damage" due to the impact of Section 899. "We do believe, however, that the current drafting of proposed section 899 should clarify its scope and avoid discouraging foreign investment in US equity markets through 'investment funds' such as US mutual funds and ETFs and their foreign counterparts (e.g., UCITS funds)," the ICI said. The letter to Senators goes on to say, "section 899 would penalize these funds and their shareholders by taxing passive income from US equity investments. To this end, investment funds would be collateral damage to the intended focus of section 899." Funds typically charge fees as a percentage of assets under management, and a withdrawal by foreign investors, over Section 899 concerns, could lead to lower earnings for the investment management firm. The Senate Finance Committee declined to comment, and Senator Mike Crapo's office did not respond to CNBC's request for comment. Foreign investors own $19 trillion in the U.S. stock markets, $7 trillion in U.S. government bonds, and $5 trillion in U.S. credit, according to data compiled by Apollo Global Management. The ICI said it's largely in support of the U.S. government's attempt to "protect US business interests overseas and to address discriminatory foreign taxes." However, it cautions that the current draft of the bill does the opposite. "Some foreign governments may actually cheer this capital flight from the United States because it benefits their local equity markets, which is not the behavioral incentive that Section 899 seeks to achieve," it said. Yuri Khodjamirian, chief investment officer for Tema ETFs, said investors in Europe who are focused on dividend-distributing U.S. companies would be "thinking quite carefully" about their holdings at this stage. "If suddenly you have to pay tax on that income, why would you hold that?" Khodjamirian questioned. Tema ETFs runs the American Reshoring ETF that is available to both U.S. and foreign investors. Tax experts suggest earnings paid out to foreign investors are more likely to be hit by Section 899 than capital gains and other methods of shareholder distributions. The Tema ETFs investment chief cautioned that the impact on the U.S. equities market would be relatively minimal as U.S. companies, say in the S&P 500, are typically not known for their dividends. "In the US, dividend yields are quite low. There's not a lot of companies paying. And most of the capital gets returned to share buybacks," Khodjamirian told CNBC. "Is that actually going to be that big of an issue then?"
Boston Globe
37 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Trump's latest manufactured crisis has Los Angeles in its grip
Advertisement And it's hard to imagine them voting to trample local local enforcement. Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up But then this administration has been just spoiling for a confrontation — especially in Los Angeles, with presidential advisers like And the president threw gasoline on the fire. Even as more demonstrators took to the streets, Advertisement Now there is no excuse for violence on the streets of any American city — and burning Waymo robot-driven cabs is hardly a good image for those with legitimate concerns about tactics used by immigration forces. The initial demonstrations were touched off by immigration raids at a garment factory and But throughout the weekend there was also no evidence that state and local police were incapable of dealing with the situation without the unasked-for federal intervention. In fact, some These are not the LA riots of 1992 in the wake of the verdict acquitting police officers of beating a Black man, Rodney King. Some Trump has long been the master of the manufactured crisis — the kind he has repeatedly used to justify broad use of executive powers. The president had barely finished taking the oath of office, when he declared a crisis at the border, requiring an Then there was the declaration of an equally nonexistent In April, with the Advertisement But by calling out the National Guard in California, on his own initiative and under false pretenses, Trump has entered new and more dangerous territory. 'The people who are causing the problems are bad people, they are insurrectionists,' Trump The president has not yet invoked the Insurrection Act but instead is using a section of the US Code on Armed Services ( That certainly explains Trump's escalating rhetoric and that of his administration, but it is an allegation that at the end of the day would have to be proven in court. 'Federal law enforcement officers were attacked by violent radicals and illegal criminals waving foreign flags because Governor Newsom was too weak to protect the city,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt Those 'foreign flags' were evidence not of an 'invasion' but for many Mexican-Americans in LA, But for this administration there is no detail that can't be used to distort the truth. 'Let me be clear: There is no invasion. There is no rebellion,' Advertisement Sure, Trump has long had it in for California, threatening to But the truly horrifying thing about Trump's current move is that it could happen to each and every state in the nation — or, more likely, to each and every Democratic state, especially when truth is so irrelevant to the Trump administration and facts are so fungible. The other danger is that having normalized the deployment of troops during manufactured crises, Trump will feel empowered to use them in even more forceful or aggressive ways if and when the nation faces actual crises. California's political leaders will not be fighting this battle on behalf of the rule of law alone. It's our fight too, and it won't be the last. Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us
Newsweek
37 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Iran Sends Defiant Warning to US on Nuclear Program: "Delusional President"
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Ahead of a next round of nuclear talks with the United States, Iran has issued a defiant warning—cautioning Washington to take its red lines seriously on uranium enrichment and sanctions relief, announcing an expansion of its nuclear power program and threatening to curtail cooperation with the UN watchdog IAEA. One top Iranian official described U.S. President Donald Trump as "delusional". Newsweek has reached out to the U.S. State Department for comment. Why It Matters Recent remarks by Iranian officials come amid heightened tensions over discussions on a potential nuclear agreement with Washington as Tehran faces growing pressure from Western powers and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), alongside threats of military action by Israel. As it prepares to respond to a U.S. proposal following five rounds of Oman-mediated talks, Iran says its advancing nuclear program is strictly for civilian purposes and non-negotiable, while demanding meaningful relief from the sanctions reimposed under Trump. Iranian citizens protest against the current Iranian government outside the Omani Embassy in Rome during the closed-door meeting between U.S. and Iranian delegations to discuss Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program, Friday, May 23, 2025. Iranian citizens protest against the current Iranian government outside the Omani Embassy in Rome during the closed-door meeting between U.S. and Iranian delegations to discuss Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program, Friday, May 23, 2025. Andrew Medichini/AP Photo What To Know "We strongly recommend the American side not to waste this opportunity — it's in their own interest to take it seriously," Iran's Foreign Ministry's Spokesperson Esmail Baqaei said about the upcoming round of talks, according to Mehr News Agency. The ministry has also criticized plans for a resolution from the United States and European allies to the IAEA board that would declare Iran non-compliant with its nuclear non-proliferation obligations, according to Reuters. After years of good cooperation with the IAEA—resulting in a resolution which shut down malign claims of a "possible military dimension" (PMD) to Iran's peaceful nuclear program—my country is once again accused of "non-compliance". Instead of engaging in good faith, the E3 is… — Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) June 6, 2025 Mohammad Eslami, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said his country will "powerfully advance its nuclear program in clear response to Western lies," the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) says, with Baqaei warning that any IAEA confrontation would trigger Iranian countermeasures, not more cooperation. While enrichment has been at the heart of disagreements, Iranian officials have further expressed skepticism over Washington's recent proposal, saying it did not address sanctions relief—a central demand in the negotiations. Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf called Trump the "delusional president of the United States" pursuing a policy of "imposition," according to the semi-official Tasnim News Agency. Under the Trump administration's maximum pressure policy, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned over 30 Iranian individuals this week for operating a shadow banking network that allegedly facilitated billions of dollars in illicit transactions for the Iranian government. What People Are Saying U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House, as quoted by Reuters on Tuesday: "They're just asking for things that you can't do. They don't want to give up what they have to give up. They seek enrichment. We can't have enrichment." Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Majid Takht-e-Ravanchi said Monday in an interview with the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA): "We are preparing the response, which has not yet been finalized... Our proposal is certainly not a one-sentence or one-paragraph text that can be easily dismissed. It contains elements that demonstrate our seriousness, show that our position has a defined framework, and indicate that we intend to work based on established principles. Our approach is logical." What Happens Next Iran will send its reply to Washington within days, according to media reports, with the date of the next round of talks with the U.S. yet to be officially confirmed by all parties. Members of the IAEA board are due to vote this week.
