{"id":381425,"date":"2021-11-09T23:19:35","date_gmt":"2021-11-09T23:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/?p=376619"},"modified":"2021-11-09T23:19:35","modified_gmt":"2021-11-09T23:19:35","slug":"school-officials-welcome-homeland-security-surveillance-after-student-fights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/11\/09\/school-officials-welcome-homeland-security-surveillance-after-student-fights\/","title":{"rendered":"School Officials Welcome Homeland Security Surveillance After Student Fights"},"content":{"rendered":"
In late October,<\/u> after a series of student fights broke out at public schools in Prince George\u2019s County, school district officials informed parents in the predominantly Black suburb of Washington, D.C., that they were taking steps to respond. \u201cAll has been handled,\u201d wrote Timothy Gover, a school security official, in an email reviewed by The Intercept. With footage of some fights circulating<\/a> online, Gover added, \u201cAlso reached out to A\/Sgt Tilus of Homeland Security and they are going to attempt to monitor social media in ref to the Suitland and Wise,\u201d two high schools where fights had recently taken place.<\/p>\n Anthony Tilghman, a local education activist, posted Gover\u2019s email<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0a\u00a0community\u00a0Facebook group. The email listed other measures, including the temporary addition of extra school security to the two high schools and a request to the local police department for reinforcements. But it was the casual reference to “Homeland Security” that stood out.<\/p>\n Two years ago, the Prince George\u2019s County Council voted unanimously<\/a> to bar all county agencies from working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a subdivision of the Department of Homeland Security. But if state and local homeland security divisions collect student data, agents could enter that information into any of the many federal DHS databases, creating a backdoor route for federal surveillance and immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n Prince George’s County Public Schools spokesperson Meghan Gebreselassie confirmed in an email to The Intercept that “Homeland Security” was contacted to \u201csupport monitoring social media for student conflicts\/ to mitigate a possible school fight.\u201d While\u00a0the county\u00a0has its own Office of Homeland Security<\/a>, Gebreselassie clarified that the school district works with a separate Homeland Security division housed within the Prince George\u2019s County Police Department<\/a>. She said the district contacts the office \u201cregularly for assistance when it comes to ensuring student safety.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \u201cThis warrantless, dragnet surveillance of minors is a clear violation of their civil rights and is an immediate threat to undocumented students and students with undocumented family members,\u201d wrote Daniel Greene, a Prince George\u2019s County parent, in an email to\u00a0Board of Education\u00a0CEO Monica Goldson and 13 board members. Greene raised concerns that the district\u2019s practices were in violation of the 2019 ordinance barring cooperation with ICE and said that he would be filing\u00a0Freedom of Information Act requests for more information. \u201cI don\u2019t believe federal anti-terror and anti-immigration surveillance is in any way suited to the task of settling fights among minors,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n Goldson responded by writing that the district would review its actions to ensure that they were in compliance with the 2019 ordinance and that it is the\u00a0district’s \u201cdesire and intent\u201d to follow the law\u2019s expectations and guidelines.<\/p>\n Gebreselassie referred The Intercept\u2019s questions about the collection of social media posts to the police. The Prince George\u2019s County Police Department did not return multiple requests for comment.<\/p>\n Civil rights and<\/u> legal advocates told The Intercept that they had not heard previously of homeland security offices surveilling students following school fights and warned that teenagers would likely have little idea of how their information is later used.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven how central social media is to young people\u2019s lives, protecting people\u2019s social media posts and protecting kids from state surveillance is extremely important,\u201d said Vera Eidelman, an American Civil Liberties Union staff attorney focused on protecting free speech online. \u201cIt\u2019s even more pernicious for kids who tend to say any number of really strongly felt things in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Data collected through youth surveillance could be used to bolster already shoddy and discriminatory<\/a> gang databases, national experts warn. Individuals, typically Black and Latino men, are frequently added to these police databases for trivial matters like standing on certain street corners, having particular tattoos, or meeting with someone else suspected to be in a gang. Even though the databases are well known to be riddled with inaccurate information<\/a>, federal agencies still routinely consult<\/a> them.<\/p>\n \u201cAllegations of potential gang involvement are where we historically have seen and continue to see real collaboration between the Prince George\u2019s County police and ICE,\u201d said Nick Katz, legal director\u00a0of CASA, an immigrant advocacy organization. \u201cOften individuals will be flagged for baseless gang allegations \u2014 like being in a picture with someone else believed to be in a gang \u2014 and then entered into local and national databases which can be used in any way [officials] want.\u201d Katz had not heard of homeland security\u00a0forces surveilling students after school fights before but said he was not surprised given the way high school students of color are routinely branded as public safety threats.<\/p>\n Greene, who studies technology and surveillance as an assistant professor at the University of Maryland, knows from his professional work how federal agencies can leverage the data they collect through surveillance. In 2017, for example, ICE used surveillance data to arrest and deport R\u00f3mulo Avelica-Gonz\u00e1lez<\/a>, a father of four who had been living in California for 25 years. In some cases, the fights themselves are filmed on cellphones and circulated<\/a> on social media, giving agents more material to collect.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first thing a parent said to me when I brought this up was, \u2018Well, you know this might sound scary, but if people weren\u2019t involved in those fights, then they\u2019ve got nothing to worry about,\u2019\u201d Greene told The Intercept. \u201cI think that fundamentally misunderstands what this surveillance is for and how it works.\u201d<\/p>\n Though it is<\/u> now the largest federal law enforcement organization and the third-largest federal employer in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security did not exist before 2003. Feeling they had been caught flat-footed by the 9\/11 attacks, federal leaders launched the new agency with a mandate to coordinate anti-terrorism efforts and doled out hundreds of millions of dollars to establish so-called fusion centers<\/a>, which collect, analyze, and share information about alleged terror threats. Blurring the jurisdictional boundaries between local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, the centers encourage sharing as much data as possible between all three.<\/p>\n Two decades in, critics charge fusion centers as yet another invasive and ineffective<\/a> national security measure. A two-year bipartisan Senate investigation released in 2012 concluded<\/a> that fusion centers had \u201cyielded little, if any, benefit to federal counterterrorism intelligence efforts\u201d and often collected intelligence of \u201cuneven quality \u2013 oftentimes shoddy, rarely timely, sometimes endangering citizens\u2019 civil liberties and Privacy Act protections.\u201d In 2020, The Intercept reported that fusion centers were being used to<\/a> monitor racial justice organizers and Black Lives Matter protests.<\/p>\n\u201cGiven how central social media is to young people\u2019s lives, protecting people\u2019s social media posts and protecting kids from state surveillance is extremely important.\u201d<\/blockquote>\n