Baltimore schools monitor student laptops for suicide signs

BALTIMORE — Baltimore public schools are using software that alerts officials when a student using one of the system’s laptops might be considering suicide. Stacey Davis is the city schools coordinator of media and instructional technology. The Baltimore Sun quotes her as saying that GoGuardian’s Beacon software identified nine students as having a severe mental health crisis, and those students were later treated. But now the software is raising privacy and equity concerns. Two recent reports warn that such technology could be used for disciplinary purposes, unintentionally out LGBTQ students or monitor economically disadvantaged students more often since school laptops may be their only devices.

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