Iowa School District Gets Grant To Monitor Students’ Social Media

An eastern Iowa school district secured funding to monitor students' social media accounts, according to a report from KWWL.

The Iowa City Community School District received federal grant funding totaling $187,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice, according to the Iowa Press-Citizen. This grant allows the district to "monitor students' social media accounts for possible warning signs that students might harm themselves or their peers." This comes as an attempt to improve safety in the schools district-wide.

This monitoring would not be done in-house. A portion of the grant would be used to contract with a company that would scan the students' social media accounts. Details of the monitoring have not yet been determined, but a certain level of scanning is actually already done in-house. School officials confirmed that the district already has the right to "look through emails and Google Drive accounts of students" using their technology. The grant would allow even deeper scanning in attempt to keep students more safe at school.

What do you think of monitoring? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.