Dive Brief:
- Orange County school district in Florida hopes to nip cyberbullying and criminal activity before it gets out of hand by monitoring its students social media activity posted from campuses. The hope is also to provide prevention and intervention regarding suicide.
- The district, which is the largest in central Florida, has purchased digital software from Snaptrends that grabs and analyzes any social media message posted while on a school campus, as well as search messages for troubling phrases.
- Nearby districts are considering similar products but first want to guage parent reaction to the new product, as it can definitely raise questions around invasion of privacy.
Dive Insight:
When Pearson scoped out student social media messages to see if PARCC test questions had been posted, there was public outcry about invasion of privacy. Now that the issue at hand is bullying it will be interesting to monitor the response.
Snaptrends will cost the district $14,000 per year. That raises questions about spending the money to build stronger relationships with students which might deter bullying.
When an Alabama school tried to monitor student social media in the 2013-14 school year, it landed in a lot of trouble. Not so much because of privacy issues, but because of suspected racial profiling, after a social media probe of its students resulted in the expulsion of 14 students, 12 of whom were black.
