A federal judge has ruled that a video scan of a student’s room at his home by Cleveland State University was an illegal violation of the student’s Fourth Amendment right to privacy.
“The case appears to be the first in the nation to hold that the Fourth Amendment protects students from unreasonable video searches of their homes before taking a remote test,” Mr. Ogletree’s attorney Matthew Besser wrote in a press release on his law firm’s website.
For its part, Cleveland State University told the Associated Press that it cannot comment on “active litigation.”
Student Aaron Ogletree filed the suit against Cleveland State University after a proctor performed a video scan of his private room at his home before a chemistry exam in February 2021.
Mr. Ogletree was taking the test from home due to COVID-19 concerns over his immune system and the health of the family members with whom he lived.
While no school written policy requires a room scan, third-party services Rospondus and Honorlock used by the school do require room scans to prevent cheating.
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Mr. Ogletree had previously objected to a room scan policy on the professor’s syllabus on privacy grounds, which was removed from the syllabus just over a month before his chemistry exam.
“However, each of the online proctoring tools that Cleveland State uses, Respondus and Honorlock, requires a room scan as part of its prerecorded instructions… the proctor presumed that a room scan was required unless the professor in the class instructed otherwise,” the court decision says.
The vendor used in this case kept the short video recording of Mr. Ogletree’s room.
“The room scan and the test were recorded, and the video recording was retained by Cleveland State’s third-party vendor,” the decision noted.
Cleveland State University’s defense relied on the point that room scans are industry-wide practice, and that Mr. Ogletree was the only student to object before he, like other students, acquiesced to the scan.
“The room scans are visible not only to the school officials but to the student’s classmates as well. CSU conducts these searches with neither a warrant nor reasonable suspicion to believe they would uncover any evidence of wrongdoing,” Mr. Besser wrote in the press release.
Judge J. Philip Calabrese of the U.S. District Court for the District of Northern Ohio ruled Monday, however, that Mr. Ogletree’s expectations of privacy fell in line with the strictures of the Fourth Amendment.
“The court determines that Mr. Ogletree’s subjective expectation of privacy at issue is one that society views as reasonable and that lies at the core of the Fourth Amendment’s protections against governmental intrusion,” the decision read.
Mr. Besser said freedom from “government intrusion into our homes is the very core of what the Fourth Amendment protects… CSU’s warrantless webcam searches of student homes tramples that fundamental privacy right.”
Judge Calabrese ordered the two parties to meet to determine next steps in the case;. Mr. Besser told the AP that Mr. Ogletree filed the suit to stop the illegal practice, and that he does not seek monetary damages.
Digital rights advocacy group Fight for the Future praised the decision and the new Fourth Amendment precedent it set.
“Schools around the world spent millions to purchase such preventative measures in the name of so-called academic integrity — treating students as guilty until they were proven innocent… Let Aaron’s victory be a warning for other universities that continue to insist on forcing such abusive software on their students, ” Fight for the Future’s Lia Holland said in a press release.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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