DENVER — There is software spying on your Denver Public Schools students to keep them safe, and it's working, according to the district.
Whenever any of the 90,000 DPS students log onto their school computers, their activity is monitored by software called Lightspeed. Students are made aware of this software, according to the district.
Lightspeed looks for words or phrases students write in messages, emails, and journals that could signal self-harm, violence and bullying.
"Not only self-harm but maybe thinking about harming others. Thinking about bringing a weapon to school. Maybe thinking about doing something about drugs at school. I think we've intervened on a number of occasions to prevent that stuff not only at our school but in our community, as well," explained Kip Sixberry, manager of Denver Public Schools Emergency Management.
According to Sixbery, when a problem word or phrase is detected, it is immediately sent to a human who looks for context. Many times, that person finds it is an exaggeration or harmless slang, even part of a perfectly appropriate school paper. But other times, it's determined that further action is needed.
If the student is in school at the time, staff will be alerted and may quietly pull the student out to check in and see if everything is OK. Other times, it's more serious, such as a student messaging someone late at night about real intent to harm. In those cases, school officers will be dispatched to the student's home.
"Very recently, within the last couple of days, we have been at student homes late at night to meet the parents, to meet with the students and to inform them there are concerning comments being made in your student's Google account. And we'd like for you to be aware and have some resources from the school district that we can offer," said Sixbery.
Sixbery said 535 contacts with students have been made this year because of alerts from Lightspeed, and more than 1,000 since the district started using the program two years ago. He said there are false alarms but they would rather err on the side of caution than let a real threat slip through.
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