Posted on 04/30/2013 10:11:32 PM PDT by mnehring
The Longview school district will join a nationwide group that identifies students who could become violent and tracks them throughout their education — regardless of where they move.
Longview ISD officials said Wednesday the district will participate in the Student Safety National Alliance starting in the 2013-14 school year.
“What we are offering and introducing to you today is the Walmart for student safety and security,” said interim district Superintendent James Wilcox.
About 70 school administrators and campus police officers from 25 school districts attended a school safety conference at the district’s education safety center to learn about the alliance.
The alliance of schools maintains and shares a database to track students who have been deemed by school personnel to be potentially dangerous — capable of committing massacres such as the ones at Columbine High School, Virginia Tech and Newtown, Conn., officials said.
Profiler Dan Korem, author of “Rage of the Random Actor,” said 6 percent of the nation’s students exhibit random actor behavioral traits — character traits that indicate they could be violent.
He said about 50 percent of students are considered high risk.
“We’re here because of what happened at Sandy Hook. If we weren’t having these catastrophic acts, we wouldn’t be here,” Korem told school officials Wednesday.
Enrollment in the program costs districts 50 cents per student per year.
Based on the district’s enrollment of about 8,700 students, the district would pay $4,350 annually to participate, said Longview ISD spokesman Adam Holland.
District officials will be able to access the searchable database to enter profiles of students whom school personnel determined to be possible threats and to see if a student’s name is already in the database.
The information is available only to member school districts nationwide.
Information entered about students will follow them throughout their education — even if they move out of district or state, officials said.
The database can be used for students in grades kindergarten through college.
The database will not conflict with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act because the stored information will not be open to the public, officials said.
“This will not violate anyone’s right to privacy with any act much less FERPA,” Holland said.
In the Longview district, Assistant Superintendent Jody Clements and principals would be able to access the database.
Other school district administrators attending the conference said they believe the alliance has the potential to increase school safety.
Gladewater Superintendent J.P. Richardson said the program was attractive but officials his district would need more time to consider it before a decision is made.
“We will digest it and look at what we have in place that is similar to this at Gladewater ISD,” Richardson said. “Student safety is upmost important next to academics in Gladewater ISD.”
Mitzi Lloyd, Gladewater ISD assistant superintendent, said the potential to link all the databases together was an attractive feature.
James Skeeler, Pine Tree ISD assistant superintendent, said his district would also take joining the alliance into consideration.
“I will need to do more research and report to the board,” Skeeler wrote in an email statement.
Officials with Grand Prairie ISD, a district with about 27,000 students, said they would consider contracting with the alliance.
“Having the data on kids that are so mobile is going be one of the keys to us being able to manage behavior. By knowing their background, we have a foundation instead of us having to go from ground zero and guessing about the kids background,” said Grand Prairie Deputy Superintendent Vern Alexander.
The school safety alliance is not without its critics.
Branden Johnson, president of the local chapter of the NAACP, said although the database could have a positive effect on campus safety, there is a huge drawback to tagging students as troublemakers as early as kindergarten.
“On the positive side, you’re able to hopefully deter any major event from happening. But you have to understand this is labeling,” he said.
And Johnson believes labeling has a negative impact on children and their abilities to receive a quality education.
Although the information stored in the alliance’s database is not available to the public, Johnson said there is nothing stopping a principal from discussing a student’s profile in the system with his or her teacher, something he said will damage the teacher/student relationship in the classroom.
“This will adversely affect minority children, and everyone knows this, little Latino boys and girls and little African-American boys and girls,” he said.
Johnson also is concerned that children who are in elementary school may end up in the system based on normal childhood outbursts, including temper tantrums.
“There is too much subjective stuff involved. How many college students had behavioral problems when they were 7 years old?” he said.
Johnson contends the new policy could become another pipeline that pushes students from school to prison, an issue that has caught the attention of community leaders across the U.S.
“But hey, if the school district thinks this will help, OK. We are dealing with elected officials. If people don’t like this, they can vote those trustees right out of office,” he said.
Longview ISD also is considering joining with Richardson-based Pave Systems, a data clearinghouse that provides technology based security systems, Holland said.
Ghassan Nino, Pave Systems CEO, said his company provides technology through smart devices that will allow school officials to lock down a campus from anywhere using a smart device.
“That is something we have been studying since before today. We really like the idea of being able to lock down a school from outside or inside the school,” Holland said. “I think you will see that in the very near future at Longview ISD.”
That same smart device will simultaneously send an alert to police and first responders.
Wilcox said the alliance’s database and Pave Systems are giving school officials the tools they need to provide safer, more conducive learning environments.
“This not only provides a bigger safety net for our students, but a bigger dragnet for the random actor or person who is going to bring harm to our campus,” he said.
Not ignored. Celebrated.
Look at the axiom "women love bad boys". Large segments of our culture praises "Billy Badass". And they grow up to be union thugs.
Back in the 50’s and 60’s when I was in school I certainly would have made the list.
Why? Because I was a standard male of that era and if provoked, would knock the snot out of you. Of course, that was expected of all masculine males at the time but now males have been feminized and socially castrated.
I was not alone since it was the norm (rather than the exception) for males back then. However, today any such action would land you in jail or worse yet, sued out of your life savings.
My generation is aging and dying away while the “kinder-gentler” neutered males have taken over.
Now, we all expect some form of government to protect our property, safety and lives instead of our natural God given gender and the natural function of that gender....masculinity.
There is a natural reason why males are larger and more powerful than females. I guess today’s generation has no idea why.
Who's "WE" Tonto? Sounds like a blue state problem to me. We're more concerned about jihadis infiltrating our military like the POS that was transferred from DC to Ft Hood. Stay the hell away from Texas students with your blue state mindset.
You know where this is headed. If a teacher suspects there are guns in the home, your child will be on the list. Count on it.
If your kid “shoots” another with his finger, he’ll be on the list.
Sometimes, I wish we’d have a huge solar flare that would knock out all this intrusive technology.
It was in the keywords and category.
I’m pretty sure that’s supposed to be read as 50% of the 6%, or 3% overall. So they admit right off the bat that half of their labeling will be incorrect.
Here’s hoping the fine people of Longview bounce these elected clowns out of office, so they can fire anyone associated with this.
Even if that is the case, that is still roughly 200-300 students labeled, potentially from kindergarten as dangerous based on no action of their own but simply based on statistical metrics from this private organization.
Let me condense this for you: Teachers can determine a child is mean or a threat and considering many teachers in this country are left leaning liberals who do you think they are going to list as "angry"? Kids get listed as high risk to become a mass murderer and the label follows them from school to school. Is that a big enough deal for you to care enough to read the article?
It’s also a peeve of mine when I see a freeper who doesn’t have a reasonable guess where Longview is from the getgo and so I look to see where in the US that freeper lives to figure why they have never heard of Longview TEXAS...east Texas between Tyler and Shreveport LA
used to be serious oil patch...especially neighboring Upshur county
and those freepers are SOOOOOO BUSY....they can’t put up a wuttle flag about where they live just to give some context to their posting
i think you and humblegunner (who I guarantee knows where Longview is) should hook up
he has a pet peeve too...of a sort
they would list my kids as dangerous likely..since they will fight to defend themselves or others
most teachers...especially at lower levels they tend to be utterly brainwashed young women...are just not thinkers for themselves..much less informed than the average freeper
they regurgitate what they read from curriculum
even in a county like mine 70% GOP voting
you should see me at parent teacher meeting...better yet...you should see my little 100 pound wifey
nobody picks on her babies over their cultural views
especially not some wet behind the ears 25 year old gurl
when I grew up i thought Jewish moms were a bit loud at school but today letting the school know if they single out your kids and that you will support them over social views in a hard left world does put them on notice
it works...it’s called pushback
Uh, isn't this what your permanent record is for? Don't they share information regarding grades and test scores when a child moves from district to district? Wouldn't a record of incidents, such as trips to the Principal's office or detention give a pretty good idea of the type of student you were admitting to your school? This reeks of more private information being farmed out to unsecured employees of a paid vendor instead of the school doing their job with available resources.
Fortunately we are done with public schooling - one still in college and he is, admittedly, one of the few conservatives who speak out - even in Texas. However, he has found on an online discussion group for a government class, that once he speaks out others begin to chime in. Recently on a “guns on campus” discussion he was the only one saying he didn’t want to be a sitting duck in a “no guns allowed” environment and was getting attacked until a girl spoke up about fears of being attacked in the parking lot and others began to understand her fears - such sheep, but anyway I guess he would be on this list too if still in a public school because he is definitely pro gun.
young people want to be accepted...by their peers
This whole initiative is linked to CSCOPE in TX. It will be implemented as part of the ‘Common Core Initiative’ nationwide. Just because your kid isn’t in school in THAT particular school district doesn’t mean your kid won’t be participating in this little human social experiment.
Whether mom and dad push back or not.
You’ll have no way of knowing what information they really DO keep on your child. Especially when it all ties into Obamacare (as provided for by the obamacare legislation). In fact, your ‘pushback’ will probably just cause your kids to get two or three ‘extra’ checkmarks next to their names in the invisible database you’ll never be allowed to access.
Mash here:
http://www.examiner.com/article/common-core-and-national-student-database-subject-of-community-forum
I thought putting Texas in the keywords and category was enough. I guess not.
I did not bother to inform stanne..He had enough time to post that reply. I would have told him about antivirus programs, too, but I was busy.
;o)
I’m still trying to get my mind around the serious implications and consequences of this database following a child around. Labels can stick even when wrongly placed.
I know! Really wanted to know which state. I get into a quick browsing mode, and want toe keep up with everything and these days, the speed of that task is dizzying. Seriously.
And Texas is such a target, now because it does so much right and because it would be such a coup.
I read at a fifth grade level
I teach High school literature in a private school where they let us teach Homer and Shakespeare, Austen and Twain.
And I’m organized and busy, trying to instill, through the use of my 1989 American Lit textbook, a sense of the classics, themes, characters & virtue & vice, and American heritage.
And I’m raising kids and trying to help family, spouse and community and trying to keep up with current events.
I expect to be flamed by the rare freeper or two for asking for a simple act of charity and on behalf of anyone else who skims these pages while paying bills, keeping house, calling rip off artists disguised as telephone service companies.
So. thanks for not letting me down.
And I have all of the latest and expensive antivirus I can get the time and resources to purchase.
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