-Caveat Lector- -----Original Message----- From: ScanThisNews <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: ScanThisNews Recipients List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sunday, 24 October 1999 18:11 Subject: [FP] Mosaic-2000 testing and profiling begins in schools ====================================================================== SCAN THIS NEWS 10/23/99 Mosaic-2000 testing and profiling begins ---------------------------------------------------------------------- XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1999 12:45:11 ET XXXXX GOVERNMENT DEVELOPING COMPUTER PROGRAM TO SPOT POTENTIALLY VIOLENT STUDENTS The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is assisting in the development of a computer program to help school administrators spot troubled students who might be near the brink of violence, the NEW YORK TIMES is reporting in Sunday editions. The computer program, known as Mosaic-2000, begins testing at more than 20 schools in December -- and the new system will vet and rate potentially violent students on a scale of 1 to 10! Francis X. Clines reports in the TIMES: "The Mosaic school program promises to provide questions carefully crafted from case histories by 200 experts in law enforcement, psychiatry and other areas. A variety of concerns beyond alarming talk or behavior will be included, from the availability of guns to a youngster's abuse of dogs and cats." The program, still being formulated, will be tested in grades one through 12. The software will not be connected to any central data program, the B.A.T.F. promises. "I think it's a wonderful tool that has a great deal of potential...," Andrew Vita, associate director for field operations of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, tells the TIMES. "It's easy to pick out the gang members with tattoos," adds Vita. "It's these other people that kind of surprise administrators, and these are the ones they really need to identify." [End Drudge Report notice] ------------------------------------------------------------- [Comments] Violence, gangs, rape, metal detectors, ID badges, profiling, drugs (mostly Prozac & Ritalin), controlled access, uniforms, and now mental evaluations... So, which will be the better analogy for schools in the next millenium: prisons or psychiatric wards? In my humble opinion, it's the parents that subject their kids to this garbage who need to have their heads examined. But then, do you suppose any parent who refuses to have their child evaluated under "Mosaic-2000" will get a "profile" of their own logged into some FBI database somewhere? Figure it out: This is a federally-funded program. Its "success" or failure will be based upon the number of cases processed. Guess what? If Moasic-2000 doesn't ferret out sufficient numbers of "problem" cases the funding goes away and federal employees lose their job. I'll bet Mosaic-2000's a resounding success! Scott ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [Another story on the FBI's new Mosaic 2000 program] The violent-kid profile A controversial new technique for beating violence http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/991011/profile.htm U.S. News Online Science & Ideas 10/11/99 BY MARY LORD The slackening rain of a major storm smacked the windows as several dozen Dallastown, Pa., teachers and principals gathered in an elementary school cafeteria for a workshop on emergency management. Their focus wasn't on natural disasters like the weather outside, however. Instead, they were getting a cram course from former police detective Peter Blauvelt, head of the National Alliance for Safe Schools, on how to handle violence from within. His top tactic: Identify alienated, troubled students -– the "nonsqueaky wheels" –- before they snap. "We don't know much about what tips a person to the level of rage where they can take someone else's life," Blauvelt cautioned. But he ticked off 17 warning signs, from social withdrawal to violent writings to angry outbursts and even poor grades. Law enforcers have long used psychological "profiling" to nab serial killers and terrorists. Now, school districts are embracing the concept as a way to attack violence at its roots. By training their radar on potential signs of violence, educators hope to pinpoint troubled students before they pull the trigger, then intervene with counseling. Prevention is "the critical thing," explains Dallastown's superintendent, Bill Thompson. In the process, however, schools are dramatically recasting the rules of acceptable behavior. Since last April's shootings at Columbine High School, students as young as third graders have been reprimanded, suspended, and even arrested for things they say in class, post on the Internet, or wear to school. Civil-liberties advocates call it the biggest crackdown on student rights in recent memory. "Early warnings." So far, metal detectors vastly outnumber "mental" detectors. But with the U.S. Education Department handing out an "early warning" violence-prevention guide to every superintendent in the country, that may change. The report details 16 indicators of potential danger, including chronic bullying and drug use, with caveats on checklist interpretations. Groups like the National School Safety Center in Westlake Village, Calif., as well as the fbi Academy's behavioral sciences unit, offer more abbreviated profiles; risk factors run from low self-esteem to cruelty to animals. Some districts are already leaping at the opportunity. In Granite City, Ill., a student who writes about "the dark side of life" and has access to guns can face required counseling -– or expulsion –- under a new school-safety policy that includes a 20-point behavioral checklist for gauging the risk of violence. The district also intends to keep computerized behavioral files on every pupil from kindergarten on up, noting such incidents as bullying or a sibling's bringing a gun to school. The Dighton-Rehoboth school district in southeastern Massachusetts plans to watch for such indicators as isolation, slipping grades, and unusual garb. And next month, 20 elementary, middle, and high schools nationwide will test a new version of Mosaic-2000, a computer-assisted system that has been helping government agencies size up threatening people and situations for years. Even the fbi has gotten involved, hosting a violence-prevention conference for educators that included behavioral profiling. But some profiles can seem vague enough to include any kid suffering from teenage angst, says Kevin Dwyer, president of the National Association of School Psychologists and coauthor of the Education Department's early-warning guide. "Listens to songs that promote violence ... Appears to be an average student ... Isolated ... Dresses sloppily," he says, reeling off points from an fbi article on school violence. "I mean, excuse me. This is another definition of adolescence!" He and others worry that profiling's mental-health component will fall by the wayside, leaving little more than a bias-filled checklist. "I know of no evaluation tool that will identify a mass murderer," he says. "The problem with this whole [profiling] thing is that if you're dealing with a serial killer and have 25 suspects and you can see a pattern, that might be something useful. But when you're talking about 53 million children and putting this in the hands of people who don't understand the material ... you're going to do irreparable harm." Many educators think such fears are overblown. "When it comes to protecting health and safety, I'd rather err on the side of safety," says Gerald Tirozzi, executive director of the National Association of Secondary School Principals. And school officials report strong community support for profiling and other safety initiatives. After Granite City's school board recently banned vivid hair dye, for example, parents called to express their gratitude. Rights, responsibilities. Student-rights advocates worry that profiling will only exacerbate the free-speech and privacy violations that erupted post-Columbine. "There should not have to be a trade-off between security and safety on the one hand and students' rights on the other," says aclu President Nadine Strossen. "It's really important that we don't overreact." Yet overreact is what some schools seem to do. Consider the case of 14-year-old Graham Gardner, a ninth grader at Grace E. Metz Junior High in Manassas, Va., who was read his Miranda rights by a uniformed police officer and suspended for 10 days. His crime? Writing a response to an English-class assignment to finish the following sentence: "If I could do anything to this school, I would . . ." "Blow it up" was how Gardner started his essay. But he went on to discuss how he would rebuild the school with first-rate labs and top science teachers–a fact that, along with a clean discipline record and aclu assistance, prompted the school board to absolve him. Though he didn't miss a day of school, Gardner says the incident "changed the way I think about certain words and how I use them." He avoids writing essays and speaks less often in class because "it seems like [teachers] are trying to catch people on everything." Identifying troubled youths often proves easier than getting them the help they need. Fewer than 10 percent of schools offer comprehensive mental-health care, notes Mark Weist, director of the Center for School Mental Health Assistance at the University of Maryland medical school. And while studies indicate that 1 student in 4 would benefit from mental-health services at some point in his school years, only a third of those who need treatment ever get any. Sometimes, however, even hair-trigger safety policies can have unforeseen positive effects. Graham Gardner says he is now being "as nice as possible to people" he once made fun of, lest he invite being branded a bully. His new attitude not only has served to keep him out of trouble; it has earned him a lot of new friends. [end forwarded article] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Social security is the bane of individual liberty. - SAM ====================================================================== Don't believe anything you read on the Net unless: 1) you can confirm it with another source, and/or 2) it is consistent with what you already know to be true. ====================================================================== Reply to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ====================================================================== To subscribe to the free Scan This News newsletter, send a message to <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> and type "subscribe scan" in the BODY. Or, to be removed type "unsubscribe scan" in the message BODY. For additional instructions see www.efga.org/about/maillist.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "Scan This News" is Sponsored by S.C.A.N. 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