School puts students under scanner

A suburban Los Angeles school district has put its students under the scanner. The Glendale school district of Los Angeles, California have hired a firm to keep a tab on the student’s social media activities on Twitter, Facebook etc. The firm has been monitoring students’ accounts for indication of violence, drug-use, bullying, self-harm or suicidal thoughts, racism and sexual harassment for a year.

The district has paid $40,500 to the firm for their social media monitoring services. An initial pilot project was conducted on 9000 children at three high schools and a middle school. Among the results was a successful intervention with a student “who was speaking of ending his life” on his social media, said Chris Frydrych, CEO of the firm.

Further many more such cases popped up, dealing with the photograph of a child holding a gun which later was determined as fake. This particular strategy has been adopted by the school for the safety of the children says the school authorities.

This initiative of the district boards might help them understand their students better and handle such instances of deviated behavior.

via SocialAppsHQ Blog http://www.socialappshq.com/blog/2013/10/25/school-puts-students-under-scanner/