More than half of U.S. school principals say they鈥檙e extremely concerned about children鈥檚 use of social media outside of school, but just 14 percent describe themselves as 鈥渧ery prepared鈥� to help students use social media responsibly.
That鈥檚 according to a new national survey of school leaders conducted by the Education Week Research Center, which found the fears are particularly acute in middle schools.
The scope of the challenge is evident in the 67,000-student Virginia Beach, Va., district. There, 11 middle schools received threats of violence, many made by students on social media, in the weeks following the February massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
鈥淭his is the world our teenagers are living in,鈥� said Freddie P. Alarcon, the principal of Corporate Landing Middle School, where a student was charged by police with 鈥渢hreatening harm by use of electronic communication鈥� after one of the incidents.
Experts say it鈥檚 no surprise principals feel overwhelmed.
Long before Instagram and Snapchat, the teenage years have been a developmentally sensitive time when students take risks, navigate fraught social relationships, and try to carve out their own identities. Now, though, social media is an integral part of those often-messy processes, giving children previously unimaginable power to document and broadcast their every action and thought.
The result is that schools face a steady stream of disruptions caused by everything from shooting threats to cyberbullying to nude photos. For principals, that means a constant low-level headache, which periodically escalates into crisis.
Part of the challenge school leaders face is that there鈥檚 no set checklist they can follow in order to proactively keep students safe on social media or respond effectively when things go sideways.
In response, a growing number of companies are pushing technology solutions, often based on surveillance of students鈥� social media.
Advocates and researchers, meanwhile, suggest a focus on 鈥渄igital citizenship,鈥� building a positive school climate, and counting on students to monitor each other.
Add it all up, and the nation鈥檚 school leaders are in an unenviable position, said Amanda Lenhart, the deputy director of the Better Life Lab at New America, a Washington think tank.
鈥淚 think our expectations of principals have become increasingly unreasonable,鈥� Lenhart said.鈥� They鈥檙e fighting a losing battle.鈥�
One thing principals can鈥檛 do is ignore social media.
鈥淚t has a tremendous impact on the day-to-day culture of a school,鈥� said Daniel Kelley, the president of the National Association of Secondary School Principals and the leader of Rhode Island鈥檚 Smithfield High School.
The worry for school leaders isn鈥檛 so much about how students use social media during the school day.
The challenge is that what happens on social media on weekends, evenings, and on the school bus often spills over into the school day, said Anne Collier, the founder of a social-media helpline for schools.
Most often, she said, that includes problems that never make the local news.
鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing surprising in what principals bring to us,鈥� Collier said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 bullying, harassment, fake profiles, mean comments, sexting, and stupid pranks.鈥�
For principals, the challenge of addressing such problems begins with identifying where students are actually leading their digital lives. Many of the platforms and services young people use鈥攕uch as Snapchat, Instagram, musical.ly, WhatsApp, Kik, and LINE鈥攎ay be unfamiliar to the average principal.
And even if school leaders can see what鈥檚 happening, they must navigate murky legal waters before reacting, said Sonja Trainor, the managing director for legal advocacy at the National School Boards Association. Courts have generally ruled that the First Amendment protects students鈥� speech on personal social-media accounts used outside of school, Trainor said, unless that speech infringes on other students鈥� rights or is likely to cause disruption inside school. Figuring out where that line is drawn can be tricky.
It鈥檚 also important for school leaders to recognize just how difficult it is for grown-ups to fully grasp the context that helps explain what鈥檚 taking place on social media, said Lenhart of New America.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e not the audience for what is happening on these platforms,鈥� Lenhart said. 鈥淵our ability to understand the full interpersonal space you鈥檙e digging into is really limited.鈥�
Companies such as Geo Listening and Social Sentinel promise to use algorithm-driven technologies to monitor students鈥� public social-media posts for everything from suicidal thoughts to school-shooting threats.
A growing number of districts鈥攊ncluding Virginia Beach, which is engaged in a 鈥渓imited pilot鈥� of such a service, according to Spence, the superintendent鈥攁re giving it a try.
But school leaders should be skeptical that such companies will actually deliver what they promise, said Faiza Patel, the co-director of the Liberty & National Security Center at the Brennan Center for Justice, which has studied the use of such tools by law enforcement.
There鈥檚 limited evidence such surveillance-based approaches are effective, Patel said. They generate a tidal wave of information, including lots of false positives (including flagging a post in which a particularly good pizza was described as 鈥渢he bomb鈥�).
And there鈥檚 every reason to believe that the stereotypes and attitudes that have contributed to racial disparities in student discipline for offline behavior will end up baked into social-media-monitoring tools, Patel argued.
鈥淚t鈥檚 put forward as a panacea,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut everything I鈥檝e seen about social-media monitoring leads me to believe it鈥檚 prone to mistakes and not reliable at doing the things we want it to do.鈥�
Instead, Patel and other experts agreed, principals are better served by proactively teaching responsible student social-media use on the front end and encouraging a culture of peer monitoring and reporting on the back end.
There鈥檚 a ways to go before that vision becomes a reality. According to the Education Week survey, more than a third of principals described themselves as 鈥渁 little prepared鈥� or 鈥渘ot at all prepared鈥� to identify such strategies.
But resources鈥攊ncluding a 鈥攁re available.
And Collier of iCanHelpline.org said school leaders can take lessons from the broader bullying-prevention field. Getting students involved as part of the solution鈥攂y reporting problems to adults and serving as social-media interpreters, for example鈥攊s seen as key, she said.
鈥淪ocial media is much more about people than technology,鈥� Collier said. 鈥淜ids are your best source of information.鈥�
Ultimately, that approach is where Virginia Beach schools have placed their biggest bet.
It starts at the beginning of each school year, when administrators remind students about the consequences for such actions as cyberbullying and sexting.
At Corporate Landing Middle School, such efforts continue throughout the year, said Alarcon, the principal. Digital citizenship is playing a big role in advisory and library time, he said, and it鈥檚 also a big part of the curricula used in the school鈥檚 technology education classes.
Virginia Beach also has a districtwide campaign called 鈥淏e Social. Be Smart. Be Safe.鈥� One big goal is to encourage students and parents alike to report problematic content鈥攁nd to provide clear, anonymous ways for them to do it.
In that context, argued Spence, the superintendent, the rash of recent arrests of students for making social-media threats against their schools鈥攂efore any real violence was committed鈥攊s actually a sign of progress.
鈥淲e would not have known about any of these things if people hadn鈥檛 felt comfortable reporting them to us,鈥� Spence said. 鈥淥ur culture of saying something is working.鈥�
