School AI Surveillance Leads to Student Arrest After Threatening Joke
The article details the case of a 13-year-old girl who was arrested and incarcerated after making an offensive joke in an online chat, triggering her school’s surveillance software, Gaggle. This software, and similar programs used in numerous school districts, monitors students’ online activity, alerting officials and law enforcement to potential threats. While proponents argue this technology saves lives by identifying at-risk students, critics express concern about the potential for criminalizing careless words and over-policing students’ online interactions, as illustrated by the high rate of false alerts. This raises questions about the balance between safety and the constitutional rights of students.
John Q. Hosedrinker