Glendale, Calif., school district monitors students' social media
By AP Wire Service on Sep 16, 2013, at 2:26 AM Updated on 9/16/13 at 5:53 AM
US & World
Washington Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis complained to police in Rhode Island last month that people were talking to him through the walls and ceilings of his hotel rooms and sending microwave vibrations into his body.
The gunman in the mass shootings at the Washington Navy Yard, Aaron Alexis, had a history of violent outbursts, and was at least twice accused of firing guns in anger.
GLENDALE, Calif. (AP) - A Southern California school district is trying to stop cyberbullying and a host of other teenage ills by monitoring the public posts students make on social media outlets in a program that has stirred debate about what privacy rights teenage students have when they fire up their smartphones.
Glendale Unified School District hired Geo Listening last year to track posts by its 14,000 or so middle and high school students. The district approached the Hermosa Beach-based company in hopes of curtailing online bullying, drug use and other problems after two area teenagers committed suicide last year, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.
The company expects to be monitoring about 3,000 schools worldwide by the end of the year, said its founder, Chris Frydrych.
In Southern California, the district is paying $40,500 to Geo Listening, and in exchange, the company's computers scour public posts by students on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, blogs and other sites. Analysts are alerted to terms that suggest suicidal thoughts, bullying, vandalism and even the use of obscenities, among other things. When they find posts they think should spur an intervention or anything that violates schools' student codes of conduct, the company alerts the campus.
"We think it's been working very well," said the district's superintendent, Dick Sheehan. "It's designed around student safety and making sure kids are protected."
Some students say they are bothered by the monitoring, even if it's intended to help them.
The company does not have a list of students' names and instead uses "deductive reasoning" to link public accounts to students, Frydrych said.
Original Print Headline: Calif. school district checks social media
US & World
Washington Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis complained to police in Rhode Island last month that people were talking to him through the walls and ceilings of his hotel rooms and sending microwave vibrations into his body.
The gunman in the mass shootings at the Washington Navy Yard, Aaron Alexis, had a history of violent outbursts, and was at least twice accused of firing guns in anger.
