School Hired Ex-FBI Agent To Monitor Students On Social Media Then Expelled Them

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

An Alabama school district hired an ex-FBI agent and paid him six figures to investigate the social media activity of students, which eventually led to more than a dozen students being expelled, according to al.com.

Huntsville City Schools paid Chris McRae $157,000 for school security improvements, which included the social media investigation. As a result of his findings, 14 students — 12 of whom were African-American — were expelled last year, according to records obtained by the news outlet.

Superintendent Casey Wardynski told al.com that the program relied on tips from students and teachers. The investigators, led by McRae, then looked for any guns or gang signs on the students’ social media accounts.

The program resulted last year in investigations of 600 students out of the 24,000-student district, according to the news outlet. Huntsville City Schools expelled 305 students last year — of which 14 resulted from the social media program.

The district has had a contractual relationship with the firm that employs McRae since 2012. District spokespeople stressed that McRae does other work besides leading the social media investigations.

Some local officials saw a racial element to the probes.

“That is effectively targeting or profiling black children in terms of behavior and behavioral issues,” Madison County Commissioner Bob Harrison said. But one black school board member disagreed.

“These numbers tell me that I have kids with some major issues,” Laurie McCaulley told al.com. “What I think the board is doing is trying to provide a safe environment for all children.”

Image via Shutterstock/scyther5.

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. I’m sure the Tea Party’s free speech advocates will be all over this.

  2. Let’s not forget…there is no requirement you be truthful on social media and almost nothing you find there can be taken as Gospel. Kids are kids…on social media too.

    At some point this has to stop. Hopefully this ends up in lawsuit…

  3. Avatar for pb pb says:

    Privacy issues notwithstanding, 14 students expelled in exchange for a $157,000 salary. That’s over 10,000 per student expelled. Wow. Just wow.

  4. Obviously the problem in AL is graduation rates are too high.

  5. “These numbers tell me that I have kids with some major issues,”

    So instead of addressing those issues they expel them. Problem solved.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

31 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for doremus_jessup Avatar for lestatdelc Avatar for paulw Avatar for richardinjax Avatar for jasonsrobot Avatar for mrdependable Avatar for Rob_Monroe Avatar for imkmu3 Avatar for zoran Avatar for mantan Avatar for callmeeric Avatar for sniffit Avatar for luigidaman Avatar for gingercloud Avatar for pb Avatar for jafafahots Avatar for atomicfern Avatar for twowolves Avatar for dnl Avatar for thunderclapnewman Avatar for vjbinct Avatar for dwolf

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: