Philadelphia school laptops clicked over 50,000 images of pupils.

The conflict over a Philadelphia school district charged of clandestinely spying on students through laptop cameras, soared today after it admitted taking more than 56,000 images of its students, lots of them in their homes.

When the scandal first started, it was thought that only some pictures had been captured of one student, Blake Robbins.

But according to court papers released this week, thousands of pictures were taken of Robbins and other pupils.

Robbins and his parents have filed a complaint against the school district of Lower Merion in a rich suburb of Philadelphia.

Court documents from the Robbins's lawyers said that initially it was thought that the laptops' "peeping tom" technology had generated a few photos but they found over 400 of Robbins, including images "showing him partially undressed and sleeping".

There were images of other students in their homes as well.

Robbins's lawyer, Mark Haltzman, said, "Not only was Blake Robbins being spied upon, but every one of the people he was IM (instant message) chatting with were spied upon".

The conflict started when Robbins was challenged by a school official in November, doubtful that he might have taken drugs in his bedroom and was shown an image captured from his laptop.

The FBI is probing the case and the Senate is considering proposing a legislation, which would make it an offense using webcams for spying.