A suburban school district in Glendale, California is paying $40,500 to a private monitoring firm to monitor and report the social media activities of its 14,000 middle and high school students for a period of one year. This involves the students’ posts on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites.
Though critics describe the monitoring activity as something akin to government stalking, officials and contractor of the school reiterated that their sole purpose is to promote student safety.
Towards the beginning of classes in fall, the district has awarded the contract to the Geo Listening firm. It had already paid the firm $5,000 last spring to start off a pilot project that would monitor 9,000 students from three high schools and one middle school. Among the favorable results was the successful intervention with a suicidal student who was talking about ending his own life on his social media account, said by the firm’s CEO Chris Frydrych.
The said intervention was significant since there were at least two students from the district that have committed suicide during the past two years. The suicides happened at a period when California has reduced its services on mental health in schools.
In another incident, a student uploaded a photo of something that looked like a gun. Later on, an inquiry has found out that the gun was a fake. Superintendent Richard Sheehan sees the need to educate students on the dangers involved in posting such images.
"We were able to save a life," Sheehan said to CNN. "It's just another avenue to open up a dialogue with parents about safety."
Frydrych’s firm scrutinizes the social media postings of students from Glendale that are 13 years old and above and sends a report to the principals every day on which among the students’ comments seemed alarming. Founded in January, the Hermosa Beach-located firm has been providing technology services to several school districts for the past 10 years.
