As the #SpyGate Story Changes with Media Enabled All Spin, All the Time, Unfair, and Unbalanced

 

So, Huntsville City Schools has gone from... Huntsville City Schools say a call from NSA led to monitoring students online  to... We don't monitor Facebook. We do very selective targeted reviews and they're based on tips that come in"  because  (get this)  the media botched the story.  RedEye Roll

SAFE has run into controversy after recent media reports characterizing it as a Big Brother-esque initiative sifting through student social media activity.
"The stories are wrong,” McRae said. “They've been mischaracterized. There's partial truths and partial accuracies in some of the stories. And then there are some blatant errors in other parts of the story. We are reacting to specific tips, specific link analysis."

If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with BullPoop.  First it was NSA, now it's specific tips from students, parents and specific link analysis. Oh, OK.

Formerly with the FBI and now with the school system's SAFE (Students Against Fear) initiative, McRae said he has discovered a variety of online threats, weapons and violence in the course of investigating Huntsville students who may bring violence into school grounds or to school activities like football games

Key words: students who may bring violence into school grounds or to school activities like football games.  So this is a preemptive strike, you know kind of like the preemptive war in Iraq and Afghanistan. But I digress

Via Wardynski's main mouth piece:

The original story on AL.com should have included these paragraphs:Wardynski said Huntsville schools have seen sporadic gang recruitment and what he called “wannabe” gangs. “We don’t want them to get into the major league,” he said.Acting on tips from students or teachers or others, schools security staff scour numerous social media sites, including Facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest, and more. They look for evidence of imminent threats to the schools or of gang activity. Wardysnki said the program has led to about a dozen expulsions each year so far and that security is actively monitoring social media at all times.Those paragraphs change the entire tone of the story, the omission makes it appear there is a massive dragnet and not a targeted program.

Who said anything about a massive dragnet?  Everybody knew this was a "targeted program",  including the ACLU.

Internal documents explaining Huntsville Superintendent Casey Wardynski's supper secret spying without a warrant program, obtained by AL.com, show examples of four different students posing on Facebook with handguns. None are on school grounds. Three are listed as expelled. One was referred for counseling (I wonder where?).  All the students are black/brown.

But, but  Newtown Conn.   My personal opinion is the school board made up the NSA part to try and cover their tracks in regards to racially profiling some students they do not like having in the school system.

To believe that the answer to the problems facing our schools will be as easy as monitoring social media belittles teenage students and treats the symptoms of our problems rather than the cause. We as Americans need to get the guts to fix our problems, not expel them or throw them in jail.

These are the questions I would like to see the media ask, and school district answer, regarding #SpyGate:

1.  Where did the budget, man hours, and equipment for this come from, and on whose authority?

2.   When did holding a gun or throwing a gang sign become illegal, and where does a school district get the legal authority to investigate, prosecute, and punish students for non-school activities?

3.  How/where are minors obtaining sub machine guns and fists full of $100.00 bills?

4. If students are entering schools with guns wouldn't it be more economical to install metal detectors like the ones citizens have to go through when they come to the Merts Center to attend school board meetings?
Say, have you seen my democracy?  I want it back.