[Q]Concern over new bullying database
Polly Curtis, education correspondent
Tuesday August 9, 2005
Children's rights groups have expressed concerns that a new database to monitor instances of bullying and violence in schools could infringe on the rights of children.
Sentinel for Bullying software is currently being trialled in by Rotherham council. It will allow the local authority to monitor all instances of bullying, violence or racial attacks recorded by its schools so that it can identify trends and bullying hotspots. Repeat offenders will also be identified by the software, Vantage, the company behind the scheme, said.
Rotherham council said that the new system was simply a digital replacement for the paper trail which currently exists. But children's rights campaigners insist that pupils should be able to challenge the information stored on the database, or it would contravene database protection laws.
The pilot scheme will run in Rotherham for the academic year from September 2005. All 16 secondary schools and four of the largest primary schools within the local education authority will be taking part.
Helen Longland, the assistant director of education at the council, said: "It's part of the modernisation agenda to reduce bureaucracy. At the moment, when there are instances of bullying, schools fill in a report and submit it. The benefit is that it should improve the opportunity to analyse trends and patterns."
She said that part of the pilot would be to design a standardised form which all the schools will fill in. It has not been confirmed what information would be included, although the system will include details of the people involved in incidents. Schools will only be able to access their own information and only key senior local authority figures would be able to access information from across the system, she said.
"With any electronic system people always have concerns, but like any organisation we look very carefully at who is using the system. People leave pieces of paper on desks and that could be even less secure."
Terri Dowty, of Action for Rights of Children in Education, said that the group had concerns with the new service. "What rights will children have to challenge the information that's stored? The children or their parents would have to be able to access their own information to comply with the law. In doing so would they then access details of children also involved?
"We would be concerned about the principle that pupils should be able to correct information held about them particularly in the school environment when accusations can be flung around."
There are strict data protection laws in place to protect the public and anyone storing personal data has to meet eight key requirements including the information being fairly processed, being kept accurate and up-to-date and processed securely.
A spokeswoman for the Information Commission, which monitors how information about the public is stored, said that any storage of data would have to comply with data protection laws. It would depend on what information is stored, how it is accessed and by whom as to whether the database would comply.
A spokesman for Vantage added that the system would use industry standard encryption techniques to ensure the website was secure. "Administrative users of Sentinel have individual user accounts with a username and password for each user. Without this no part of the system can be accessed. For security the usernames and passwords are encrypted within the database."
[/Q]
Massachusetts already has an electronoc reporting system that administrators must use to report to the Departmenet of Education incidents that happen in the course of a school day.
Does anyone have thoughts on this?
Polly Curtis, education correspondent
Tuesday August 9, 2005
Children's rights groups have expressed concerns that a new database to monitor instances of bullying and violence in schools could infringe on the rights of children.
Sentinel for Bullying software is currently being trialled in by Rotherham council. It will allow the local authority to monitor all instances of bullying, violence or racial attacks recorded by its schools so that it can identify trends and bullying hotspots. Repeat offenders will also be identified by the software, Vantage, the company behind the scheme, said.
Rotherham council said that the new system was simply a digital replacement for the paper trail which currently exists. But children's rights campaigners insist that pupils should be able to challenge the information stored on the database, or it would contravene database protection laws.
The pilot scheme will run in Rotherham for the academic year from September 2005. All 16 secondary schools and four of the largest primary schools within the local education authority will be taking part.
Helen Longland, the assistant director of education at the council, said: "It's part of the modernisation agenda to reduce bureaucracy. At the moment, when there are instances of bullying, schools fill in a report and submit it. The benefit is that it should improve the opportunity to analyse trends and patterns."
She said that part of the pilot would be to design a standardised form which all the schools will fill in. It has not been confirmed what information would be included, although the system will include details of the people involved in incidents. Schools will only be able to access their own information and only key senior local authority figures would be able to access information from across the system, she said.
"With any electronic system people always have concerns, but like any organisation we look very carefully at who is using the system. People leave pieces of paper on desks and that could be even less secure."
Terri Dowty, of Action for Rights of Children in Education, said that the group had concerns with the new service. "What rights will children have to challenge the information that's stored? The children or their parents would have to be able to access their own information to comply with the law. In doing so would they then access details of children also involved?
"We would be concerned about the principle that pupils should be able to correct information held about them particularly in the school environment when accusations can be flung around."
There are strict data protection laws in place to protect the public and anyone storing personal data has to meet eight key requirements including the information being fairly processed, being kept accurate and up-to-date and processed securely.
A spokeswoman for the Information Commission, which monitors how information about the public is stored, said that any storage of data would have to comply with data protection laws. It would depend on what information is stored, how it is accessed and by whom as to whether the database would comply.
A spokesman for Vantage added that the system would use industry standard encryption techniques to ensure the website was secure. "Administrative users of Sentinel have individual user accounts with a username and password for each user. Without this no part of the system can be accessed. For security the usernames and passwords are encrypted within the database."
[/Q]
Massachusetts already has an electronoc reporting system that administrators must use to report to the Departmenet of Education incidents that happen in the course of a school day.
Does anyone have thoughts on this?