Is the software improving school safety, stifling creativity, or both?
By Anne Larsen
“A lot of kids are scared of confrontation. It feels like I’m in trouble even though I’m not,” Landrio said.
The Gaggle program was not designed to hold kids back creatively, nor is its purpose to instill unease in students. Gaggle was made to spot students who could be at risk of harming themselves or others by parsing emails and documents and alerting administrative resources of any concerning keywords. Plenty of students have had to take trips to the guidance office and experience the shock of a Gaggle alert; in fact, Lois Beckett, in a 2019 article in The Guardian, revealed that Gaggle is used in 1,400 school districts and monitors approximately 4.5 million students across America. But what does this process look like from our local administration’s standpoint?
Bobbie Jo Hawkins, an assistant principal at John Handley High School, shed some light on the administrative side of the Gaggle program.
“Some students don't know how to ask for help...If it's a mental health issue we forward the gaggle to the school counselor and have them reach out to the students,” Hawkins said. Digital safety and security are of great concern to Winchester Public Schools; Gaggle or a Gaggle equivalent, Hawkins confirmed, is used in numerous WPS schools.
Aaron McBride, the Director of Technology for Winchester Public Schools, disclosed that this specific program covers grades 5 to 12 across the division. The school division pays 4 dollars per student for the Gaggle service, adding to technology costs for the district.
Administrators say Gaggle is worth the cost. Hawkins revealed that the administrative office at John Handley High School receives at least one Gaggle alert every day. This does not include any of the other schools within Winchester Public Schools. Despite how frequently the Gaggle program picks out keywords from students’ daily digital routines, the administration takes each and every one of these alerts incredibly seriously.
“We have to treat each [alert] as if the student is at risk,” Hawkins stated.
Amber Mungavin, the Director of Counseling at John Handley High School, also provided insight on the steps taken to ensure that the student highlighted by Gaggle is safe, saying “Depending on the level of severity and content, the student's parent/guardian is also contacted to let them know about the alert and the administrator is made aware.”
Of course, there is always the possibility that technology makes a mistake. Landrio expressed her concerns about Gaggle, admitting that “I feel like it’s an issue with creativity for students. [Gaggle] doesn’t look into context...I’ve had to change the words I use, or not bring up topics at all.” Keywords programmed into Gaggle can often be taken out of context, which could render an alerted student uncomfortable with writing and expressing themselves for fear of being targeted again.
Fortunately, this issue is remedied by the human aspect of Gaggle: the administrators and counselors who review the alert.
Mungavin supplemented this, describing how counselors will look at the content of the Gaggle alert, discuss the information with the student to glean context, and even contact the student’s teacher to confirm whether or not the alert was due to the topic of assigned work. Context is crucial in writing, and the administrative team and counselors fully acknowledge it when considering Gaggle alerts.
Hawkins concluded, “It really depends on what assignments are being assigned by the English department and what time of year it is. We also see an increase [in alerts] when students are completing college essays…”
