Lake Nona High School uses new software program to keep students safe
As Lake Nona High School Principal Nicolle Campbell prepares for her 4,600 incoming students, she's relying on a new tool to keep them safe.
And it's one they can't see. It’s called Gaggle, a software program that kicks into action any time a middle or high school student uses their district login on any device.
It monitors their assignments, messages, anything they type and flags keywords or phrases that could be a concern.
Orange County Public Schools Chief Communications Officer Scott Howat talked us through what happens next.
“Once they're flagged, then they're reviewed by humans. They go in and look and see what things are being flagged. And then they report it back to the district,” Howat said.
The human component is important because the context of the flagged words or phrases determines if there's actually a potential threat.
During the last two months of the school year, Gaggle's security team reviewed 93,603 flagged items.
Of those, almost 2,400 were passed along to the district and principals like Campbell.
“Some examples would be potential drug use. We have seen some sexual content with students that might be in love in high school and that's OK because it allows us to have those conversations and parents to have the conversation," Campbell said.
At Lake Nona, a life was saved thanks to the software.
“So when we got the alert, basically the student had written a suicide note and the parent did not have any clue about it. Our staff did not have any clue about it, but the student felt comfortable writing to their teacher and the teacher did not get it because Gaggle got it first, which then allowed us to intercept," Campbell said.
Campbell says that incident and others prevented district-wide outweigh concerns some parents have raised about privacy.
“When they learned that it was really a tool to support and to really step in before anything occurs, I think that was our breakthrough. And our parents were not as concerned at that point," Campbell said.
She also had a reminder that while Gaggle monitors school-issued accounts, it's up to parents to still inspect other devices and social media.
To keep kids safe, the work must continue at home.
“Just open up the doors for communication, you know. Everyone's on their phones. Everyone's on their computers. And that's an all-day, everyday thing for kids and adults. But this is really allowing parents to take a moment, check in with your high schooler. They need you. They need you during this time,” Campbell said.