The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District purchased a social-media-monitoring service before the deadly attack on Robb Elementary School on Tuesday, May 26, in which 19 students and two adults were killed.
Developed by the tech company Navigate360, Social Sentinel uses artificial intelligence to “recognize signals of potential harm found in such digital conversations as organization-owned emails and public social media posts. The platform scans selected digital content and identifies language that may indicate the research, planning and implementation of an act of violence or harm, as well as potentially dire mental health issues.”
A total of 52 school districts in Texas employ the service, including Uvalde CISD.
An Instagram account allegedly belonging to the shooter, Salvador Ramos, 18, included photographs of firearms before it was deleted Wednesday afternoon, May 27.
Social Sentinel advertises to clients that it can detect guns in images on many social media networks, including Instagram.
However, according to the terms of service, Social Sentinel only monitors content posted on the social media accounts of the client school. Ramos did not tag or mention Robb Elementary or Uvalde CISD in any of his posts or photograph captions.
Uvalde CISD listed Social Sentinel on a document detailing the district’s “preventative security measures” for the 2019-20 academic year. Part of the document reads, “UCISD utilizes Social Sentinel to monitor all social media with a connection to Uvalde as a measure to identify any possible threats that might be made against students and or staff within the school district.”
According to The Dallas Morning News, the monitoring service has seen mixed results.
Clear Creek Independent School District, for instance, discontinued its contract with Social Sentinel in its first year, claiming the district received better information from an anonymous tip line.
School districts in Keller, Lewisville, Mineral Wells, and Schertz-Cibolo also saw little benefit in maintaining the service.
However, according to Lamar CISD, Social Sentinel allowed officials to intervene before students committed acts of self-harm on several occasions.
Many districts across the state continue to employ the service. It is unclear if Uvalde CISD maintained an active contract at the time of this week’s shooting.