{"id":874762,"date":"2021-10-13T10:51:47","date_gmt":"2021-10-13T14:51:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=874762"},"modified":"2021-10-13T11:00:19","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T15:00:19","slug":"baltimore-schools-are-tracking-kids-online-activity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/baltimore-schools-are-tracking-kids-online-activity\/","title":{"rendered":"Baltimore Schools Are Tracking Kids\u2019 Online Activity"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbaltimore-schools-are-tracking-kids-online-activity%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=874762&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Public schools in Baltimore are monitoring student activities online using software that recognizes certain words and phrases that then alert school officials that a student may be contemplating suicide.<\/p>\n<p>The Baltimore Sun <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/education\/bs-md-laptops-monitoring-20211012-a2j3vsytijhhjj36n57ri5zdhi-story.html\">reported<\/a> called the surveillance system \u201ccontroversial,\u201d adding that it was added to laptops during the pandemic, when students were using school computers at home.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince March, nine students have been identified through GoGuardian\u2019s Beacon software as having a severe mental health crisis and were taken to an emergency room, according to Stacey Davis, the city schools coordinator of media and instructional technology. In at least two of those cases, the students had never had any mental health care,\u201d the Sun reported.<\/p>\n<p>Two recent reports cast doubt on the system, warning that it could be used to discipline for their private online activities and limit students\u2019 free speech. The reports also noted that LGBTQ students could be unintentionally outed by use of the surveillance system.<\/p>\n<p>Elizabeth Laird, director of equity in civic technology at the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, co-authored one of the reports and told the Sun that \u201cPrivacy and equity was not being considered as much as it needs to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>GoGuardian has been used before for monitoring students\u2019 online activity, but not for mental health issues. School officials told the Sun that they were trying to build relationships with students using the software.<\/p>\n<p>The Sun\u2019s editorial board published <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/opinion\/editorial\/bs-ed-1013-schools-monitoring-kids-online-20211012-7fglo2hdyrhilmqjmfu52qe76i-story.html\">an article<\/a> raising concerns about the software:<\/p>\n<p><em>The city system apparently has no policies in place to govern what can \u2014 and can\u2019t \u2014 be monitored on its thousands of devices. It has&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/therealnews.com\/cops-in-baltimore-schools-are-monitoring-students-laptops\">sent police to children\u2019s homes<\/a>&nbsp;in response to their use of certain self-harm-related keywords, as The Real News Network noted earlier this month. And the surveillance undoubtedly targets lower-income families, who are more likely to use school-issued computers instead of their<\/p>\n<p><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Public schools in Baltimore are monitoring student activities online using software that recognizes certain words and phrases that then alert school officials that a student may be contemplating suicide.The Baltimore Sun reported called the surveillance system \u201ccontroversial,\u201d adding that it was added to laptops during the pandemic, when students were using school computers at home.\u201cSince March, nine students have been identified through GoGuardian\u2019s Beacon software as having a severe mental health crisis and were taken to an emergency room, according to Stacey Davis, the city schools coordinator of media and instructional technology. In at least two of those cases, the students had never had any mental health care,\u201d the Sun reported.Two recent reports cast doubt on the system, warning that it could be used to discipline for their private online activities and limit students\u2019 free speech. The reports also noted that LGBTQ students could be unintentionally outed by use of the surveillance system.Elizabeth Laird, director of equity in civic technology at the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, co-authored one of the reports and told the Sun that \u201cPrivacy and equity was not being considered as much as it needs to be.\u201dGoGuardian has been used before for monitoring students\u2019 online activity, but not for mental health issues. School officials told the Sun that they were trying to build relationships with students using the software.The Sun\u2019s editorial board published an article raising concerns about the software:The city system apparently has no policies in place to govern what can \u2014 and can\u2019t \u2014 be monitored on its thousands of devices. It has\u00a0sent police to children\u2019s homes\u00a0in response to their use of certain self-harm-related keywords, as The Real News Network noted earlier this month. And the surveillance undoubtedly targets lower-income families, who are more likely to use school-issued computers instead of their own, personal devices.School Police Chief Akil Hamm told the Sun that many families who were contacted due to alerts from the software were grateful to learn about their children\u2019s mental health concerns.\u201cBut it doesn\u2019t alleviate our other concerns, including the potential for 4th amendment violations involving warrantless searches. If this software usage is to continue in this way, we\u2019d much prefer to see social workers and psychologists responding to red flags, rather than armed officers,\u201d the editorial board wrote.Baltimore is not the only place monitoring student online activity. Other school districts in Maryland have increased monitoring during the pandemic, mostly to ensure students are doing their assignments. Schools in Rhode Island also have monitoring software, and teachers in the state can view student activity and even access the cameras, according to a report from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The ACLU\u2019s report found:23 districts explicitly advise students and parents that they have no expectation of privacy when in possession of the device. \u00a023 districts give school officials the authority to access the contents of a school-loaned device for any reason and with no notice.\u00a024 districts allow officials to access the microphone or camera on a school-loaned device at any time.\u00a0The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a\u00a0member.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1888398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-874762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=874762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1888398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}