By CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA | Reporter
As part of an ongoing effort to increase security at Palisades Charter High School, school officials are close to finalizing a contract that will implement a social media monitoring service aimed at detecting security threats in real time.
Social Sentinel, a social media monitoring service, has been in talks with the school since the beginning of the year in hopes of landing a contract and providing their service. By monitoring all social media platforms, the software searches for keywords that may be interpreted as a threat to the school. Should a threat be detected, the administration receives an alert in real time.
“Some of them may turn out to be nothing, and some of them may turn out to be something,” said Don Parcell, the school’s director of operations. “And if they turn out to be something, the earlier we find out that there may be something brewing, the more you can potentially do to prevent it.”
But with large deficits and financial constraints, the $6,000 contract will need to be approved by the board and assessed closely as some remain skeptical of its necessity.
“Generally speaking if there’s a threat on social media it’s been spread around without a monitoring service,” said Dara Williams, a trustee on the board and a parent at Pali High.
“It’s not that I’m against it or for it. I just see the benefit of having a cost-benefit analysis.
“You can put up fencing, you can do a lot of things but if it doesn’t prevent something from happening, I don’t understand the point of it,” she continued.
Social Sentinel reiterates that they only monitor public postings with many universities around the country already implementing the software.
The board is expected to vote on the contract in an upcoming meeting.
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