Glendale Unified School District in California began monitoring their students’ social media through a company called Geo Listening.

The company was hired to catch any posts by students relating suicide, bullying, drug use or any harmful and/or illegal posts on popular social media such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

“I think it’s okay for schools to monitor student’s social media because colleges, jobs and bosses view them already. If there’s suicides that were caused by cyber-bullying, then the school should do something about it,” junior Isabelle Gordon said.

Geo Listening can only view public posts by students, however, students have the option to put their profiles on public. The decision to monitor students’ social media profile was influenced by a recent student’s suicide in the district.

“The district has good reason but I think it is outside their sphere of influence,” junior Lee McMullin said.

According to principal Jeremy Mitchell, West has never considered it and the Parkway School District is not likely to follow the path of monitoring student’s social media.

“If there were detrimental behaviors, as a school we would like to help students learn from their mistakes. I understand the District’s goal, but I don’t think there should be monitoring; it seems intrusive. Students need privacy,” Mitchell said.

However, Glendale Unified School District was able to prevent a suicide. They spotted a student’s post talking about suicide, and contacted her parents. The monitoring did save a life.

As the usage of social media increases with the new generations, will the trend of schools to begin monitoring students’ post increase as well?