Students in traditional calendar public schools are heading back to school this week for the start of another academic year, and school district officials are looking for new ways to ensure the safety of those students.

Orange County Schools has hired a third party firm to monitor social media activity for threats against schools.

They announced via Facebook this summer that the service, called Social Sentinel, would scan publicly posted social media content, flag anything that could be interpreted as a threat and report that information back to Orange County Schools.

Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood said during a WCHL Community Forum earlier this year that the monitoring of social media was a useful tool in the fight against possible school violence.

“I think it’s critically important that we stay involved in all platforms of social media,” said Blackwood. “It’s changed the landscape for law enforcement for certain.”

Chapel Hill – Carrboro City Schools assistant superintendent Todd LoFrese said during the same forum that he believes that monitoring the social media of students and those involved in the schools is part of a community-wide effort to keep schools safe.

“Regarding school safety, it is a community effort, right?” said LoFrese. “It’s not just the police department, and it’s not just teachers; it’s our parents; it’s our students.”

However, the issue raises questions about invading the privacy of students, teachers and school faculty.

ACLU of North Carolina communications director Mike Meno said this will continue to bring up questions about surveillance through social media.

“Any time we are taking a big step toward expanding that power that schools have to monitor and conduct surveillance of students, I think that’s something that needs to be done carefully and in close consultation with parents and with a lot of transparency,” said Meno.

Questions remain about what will be done with the information gleaned from students’ social media accounts after it is determined to not pose a threat to schools as well.

“The school should really think long and hard about having a retention policy, so they’re not creating a database of social media posts that are relatively harmless from students,” said Meno.

Monday was the first day of school for Orange County Schools. Chapel Hill – Carrboro City Schools are scheduled to begin classes on Tuesday.

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