Companies paid to scan and monitor your social media accounts looking for signs of cyberbullying wouldn’t bother you, right?

What if they were also looking for signs of controlled substances, self-harm, disruption of school activities, truancy, hazing, sexual harassment of peers or teachers, threats or acts of physical violence, use of fake identification, hate speech, racism, weapons and suicide or dispair?

One company, Geo Listening, of Hermosa Beach is doing just that. Under contract by Glendale Unified School District, they are monitoring the social media accounts of students.

The Glendale District paid the founder and CEO, Chris Frybrch, of Geo Listening $40,500 to monitor Facebook and other social media accounts of students in the district, according to the LA Times.

CUSD spokesman Marcus Walton says Capistrano Unified is not engaged in monitoring student postings in social media. “No,” he said.

Frybrych, of Geo Listening says, “the company gathers what students are putting out there for the world to see…No matter where they are, if they are advertising it in the public domain, it’s no different than if they’re standing in front of a teacher.”

A junior at Hoover High thinks differently. “We all know social media is not a private place, but it’s not the same as being in school. It’s students’ expression of their own thoughts and feelings to their friends. For the school to intrude in that area – I understand they can do it, but I don’t think it’s right,” says Young Cho, interview in the Times. By the end of the year, Geo Listening expects to be monitoring over 3,000 schools worldwide.

The problem is that the company is invading students’ public, yet still private, lives to look for less serious offenses occurring outside of school. We need to preserve our right to privacy and our freedom of speech. This goes all the way back to the founding fathers when Benjamin Franklin stated, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

In the end we have to decide what is more important,  keeping kids safe from cyberbullies, or preserving our personal liberties.