Alabama schools stalk students on Facebook, supposedly at the NSA's bidding

Alabama schools stalk students on Facebook, supposedly at the NSA&#039;s bidding

(Image credit: iStock)

last updated 8 January 2015

The Huntsville, Alabama, school system has been secretly monitoring students' activity on Facebook and other social media sites after ostensibly receiving a call from the NSA a year and a half ago.

The schools are searching for evidence of gun ownership, gang activity, suicidal tendencies, and threats of violence so they can take disciplinary action against students before they have turned online bravado into real crime. So far, at least three students have been expelled and one has been sent to counseling based on Facebook photos showing them holding handguns.

The NSA denies contacting the school or suggesting the monitoring program. Meanwhile, other school systems in places like Glendale, California, Jackson, North Carolina, and more, are also secretly keeping tabs on students online. Public reaction to these programs has been largely negative, and civil liberties advocates are concerned, too. "[T]his program is sweeping and far afield of what is necessary to ensure student safety and intrudes deeply into students' privacy and conduct outside of school," said attorney Brendan Hamme of the ACLU.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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