Social media challenges addressed
LOWER POTTSGROVE » Social media has changed the way we get and distribute information and school districts continue to wrestle with the best balance.
Two discussions at Tuesday’s Pottsgrove School Board meeting highlight the challenges districts face.
The first and more serious of those are security threats.
All too often, in hindsight, it becomes clear after an attack or violent incident at a school that warning signs may have been present on social media.
And school officials, who don’t
spend their whole day monitoring social media, are angrily asked how they missed those signs.
Pottsgrove officials don’t want those signs missed, and they also don’t want to spend their entire day monitoring social media.
But they’ve found someone who will, and for only about $2,000.
Schools Superintendent William Shirk told the school board Tuesday that he hopes they will vote on a proposal at next month’s meeting on whether to hire the Burlington, Vermontbased firm “Social Sentinel.”
According to the company’s website, the company was founded by University of Vermont Chief of Police Gary Margolis who realized the potential for preventing security issues by coming up with a way to monitor potential threats on the Internet.
“The explosive proliferation of social media finds some users posting their harmful intentions — publicly — towards the people and places where we learn, work and play. Our service provides clients with insights into those public threats to help maintain the safety of their communities. We do this with a commitment to protect our collective (and constitutional) rights to: privacy, freedom of association, and freedom of speech,” the company website pledges.
Shirk said the monitoring works by using a glossary of threat terms for which the company constantly monitors the region’s social media environment.
Board member Jim Lapic said that list or words is not made public.
But Lapic also warned the process might cause an alert when one is not warranted. “So suppose someone asks how a friend did on a test and he replies ‘I really bombed.’ We might get an alert from something like that,” he said.
Concerns were also raised about data mining of personal information on social media and Shirk said he did not have enough information about how the company operates to answer those those questions yet.
Joe Zlomek, editor of The Sanatoga Post, asked if the district would also use Social Sentinel for “reputation management,” a question, school board President Robert Lindgren said, the district does not have enough information to answer.
“We know these can be issues and all we’re saying at this point is its worth investigating,” Lindgren said.
Shirk said he is trying to balance the need to be transparent, and to keep security measures out of the public view.
“We don’t want kids setting us up,” he said.
Shirk also noted that the contract is being offered through the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit and that many other school districts are using the service.
Concerns about personal information on social media, and in the news media, were raised in a different context Tuesday as well.
Board member Tina McIntyre asked about the district’s policy for releasing information in the wake of the “medical lockdown” that occurred on the first day of school at Pottsgrove High School.
She worried that news reports, based on information released by the district, could violate the privacy of the student with an existing medical condition who needed to be taken from the high school in an ambulance, which triggered the lock-down to clear of the hallways for the stretcher.
“I didn’t like that student being exposed,” McIntyre said.
She was not alone. Several people commented on The Mercury’s Facebook page about the appropriateness of the district releasing so much information, and The Mercury reporting it.
“I’m sorry but this not news. Having a medical emergency is a private event that is not publicized. Since the school has school nurses this borders on violations of HIPAA,” posted reader Jon Herbsleb.
“Making a general announcement to clear hallways is fine or an announcement saying please remain in your classroom is also fine. Declaring a specific medical event does not need to happen. The school just might as well have released the individuals name and age. As a first responder, all this does when we arrive is draw unnecessary attention to a private situation. Anyone who witnessed said event has questions or wants to know then ask individually. This never should have made the paper or anywhere else. This is something between the individual, their family, ambulance crew and the hospital,” Herbsleb wrote.
“Why is this even news?” asked reader Jim Boyer.
Reader Emily Wojton responded “due to cell phones and kids texting mommy, the school now releases what happened asap to prevent over-reactive parents from freaking out.”
Shirk said something similar, although with a bit more diplomacy.
He said given the prevalence of smart phones and the certainty that students would post about the incident on social media, and alert their parents, the district feels its best to post as much factual information as is warranted to prevent speculation.
“It’s my personal preference that the district always puts more facts out there. The more facts the better,” said Lindgren. “And we also have to be consistent. We can’t pick and choose which situations we let people know about.”