Back in September, 2014, I noted two news items out of Huntsville, Alabama where a district claimed they had been told by the NSA to monitor students’ social media activities. The NSA denied making any such call. Now Tim Cushing says the same district is back in the monitoring news:
The same Alabama school district that claimed God the NSA told it to monitor its students’ social media activities is back in the news again. The tune has changed but the lyrics remain the same. This new social media monitoring program proceeds without the NSA’s blessing or the use of a snappy acronym, but it’s pretty much the same thing — only expanded to cover all students (potentially), rather than the former’s programs 600 or so “targets.” (via the Free Thought Project)
Read more on TechDirt.
It is not going to change the problem of bullying in the schools. Maybe a more pragmatic discipline rule needs to be administered with technology in a 21 century where smart phones and tablets are all over schools now. However, this is Alabama and I am probably reaching for straws here on real pragmatic solutions in public schools.