LGBTQ Students Reportedly Targeted by Surveillance Programs

LGBTQ content within a Minneapolis school district is apparently being targeted by surveillance programs and being labelled as “pornographic,” according to them.

The system in question, Gaggle, which was implemented by Minneapolis schools at the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, monitors anything and everything on a student’s computer, from chat messages to personal files and assignments.

According to The 74 Million, the software functions by diving into student files and flagging any data with keywords that are deemed inappropriate. The software was originally intended to prevent students from accessing any NSFW, or Not Safe For Work/School, content.

These good intentions on Gaggle’s part reflected poorly with regards to LGBTQ content among student communities. Using the software, their content and ideals are being disproportionately censored and flagged for review by the school, and are being wrongfully deemed inappropriate.

In one example, a trans student named Teeth Logsdon-Wallace, whose dysphoria was exacerbated by the pandemic, decided to include details regarding their inner fight in an assignment dedicated to the matter.

This assignment included a song that got Teeth through that time, and a blurb for that song regarding the affect it had on them. This assignment was flagged, along with thousands of other works from students, who all undergo 24-hour surveillance and almost no privacy.

The Gaggle software has been proposed to be ineffective as well as overly invasive. Context was not taken into account when Teeth’s work was flagged for using the word “suicide.”

“I was trying to be vulnerable with this teacher and be like, ‘Hey, here’s a thing that’s important to me because you asked,” says Teeth. “Now, when I’ve made it clear that I’m a lot better, the school is contacting my counselor and is freaking out.

CEO of Gaggle Jeff Patterson denies having bias on the matter, stating they do not “make a judgement on that level of the context.”

Surveillance among communities such as this only contributes to a system built around keeping LGBTQ communities down and out. Reduction or elimination of surveillance is key here. An ideal amount of surveillance would be enough to indicate whether life is actually in danger without knowing what a student had for breakfast that morning.