Does Safety Database Invade Student Privacy?

(from the Guardian) This school year, Florida's new Schools Safety Portal, a statewide database, will collect, sort and analyze sensitive data about students to share with law enforcement. Created in response to the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, the portal is described as an early warning system to identify and assess potential threats. The system may invade student privacy, however, without making schools safer, argues Lori Bezahler, CEO of The Edward W. Hazen Foundation. Children as young as four could be forced to share personal and biometric data with law enforcement. 

Similar systems are widely used by law enforcement, regardless of considerable evidence that they generate biased results, often unfairly targeting people of color. Despite their inherent bias, police forces use them to make decisions about deploying officers and building a list of potential suspects. Courts use them to determine prison sentences. Customs and Border Protection is installing facial recognition systems at airports and using them to scan state license databases. The security technology market is capitalizing on fears about school safety to sell unproven, costly surveillance systems that put students, particularly students of color, at risk, Bezahler writes. 

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