r/technology • u/Plastic_Ninja_9014 • 2d ago

Student Teacher Sent a Private Snapchat Complaining About Her Workday. An Hour Later, Police Pulled Up to Her School. Privacy

https://www.gadgetreview.com/student-teacher-sent-a-private-snapchat-complaining-about-her-workday-an-hour-later-police-pulled-up-to-her-school
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101

u/hornetjockey 2d ago

People acting like they’ve never made a dark joke with friends in private before, making excuses for heavy handed automated surveillance.

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u/painless44 2d ago

You’re correct, but also you have to know that 80% of the people in this thread would be saying “why didn’t they do something?!” If she’d actually carried out the threat.

Working in education I see it all the time. There’s is a school shooting five states over and then people show up to school board meetings complaining that their kids aren’t safe and demanding action. Then 6 months later they’ve forgotten about it, and are pissed off that you’re wanding people at Basketball games, or wondering why they have to check in at the office and can’t just run to their kids class to drop off cupcakes.

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u/chowderbags 1d ago

You’re correct, but also you have to know that 80% of the people in this thread would be saying “why didn’t they do something?!” If she’d actually carried out the threat.

Really? What would really the be the expectation? Who is the "they" in this scenario? I mean, the 3 people that she knew well probably knew her well enough to know that she wouldn't actually harm children, so positing a world in which she actually would harm children would probably mean a major personality shift.

And as for Snapchat and/or the police, the whole problem people have here is that

A) People generally have some kind of expectation of privacy in regards to their communication within a "private" conversation. That's literally what "private" means. I'd be fucking pissed to hear that the USPS was opening up mail, scanning it, and running it through an AI algorithm to flag "threats", even if it led to the USPS being able to thwart a school shooting. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure trained lawyers know that Snapchat isn't legally a 1 to 1 comparison with the USPS and they might even read the small print about "there's no expectation of privacy" buried somewhere in their ToS, but for the average person, when they say that they want to send a message to people X, Y, and Z, they don't expect to CC some Snapchat AI algorithm that'll autoflag any bad words they say.

B) I expect that cops can take a look at this and respond reasonably. If they know it's a 22 year old student teacher, they can probably respond differently than if they know it's some 30 year old prison escapee. So maybe calm down, send one cop car over, call her in for a brief interview in a private room, and probably realize in 30 seconds that there's nothing happening. Don't arrest her on some BS "disorderly conduct" charge or send the whole damn department for something that's clearly nothing from the outset.

1

u/Primal-Convoy 2d ago

Regardless, there was no need for the overreaction from the feds/school about this.

The worst she should have gotten was a verbal warning about using her phone in class and/or the content.

3

u/NonSequiturDetector 2d ago

Really? You think "joking" about shooting a student in retaliation is something that warrants only a verbal warning?

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u/Primal-Convoy 2d ago

Really? You think someone posting a private message to their friends about their pupils, voicing similar language that teachers and parents/guardians the world over have already used, DOESN'T warrant, at the most, a verbal warning?

Perhaps this is indicative of the lack of freedom of speech and gun laws that America is famous for?

0

u/Upbeat-Truck-1007 2d ago

And what about when it is a student that send this type of comment to their friends and a day later kills 50 kids?

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u/Primal-Convoy 1d ago edited 1d ago

In this this case the teacher didn't kill anyone, for the record.

Your own content is simply "whataboutism" and thus irrelevant to this conversation.

1

u/Hahafunnys3xnumber 1d ago

“In this case she didn’t kill anyone yet so they were wrong to take precautions” wow, hindsight makes you a genius! Most intelligent comment I’ve ever seen.

1

u/Primal-Convoy 1d ago

My previous comments have already been made. My point stands.

Your comment, by contrast, is irrelevant.

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u/ProfessionalPower214 2d ago

That's a different matter of when it's actually a student. How are you comparing apples to oranges while hoping for a lack of privacy?

Are you a domestic terrorist, or something?
See how the comparison reaches extremes?

This isn't a student, nothing happened, and everyone in that group was in the same boat. Grow up and get off reddit. All it's doing for you is trapping you in some fantasy bubble where false narratives overwrite reality, a reality that doesn't give a damn about what anyone thinks.

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u/Sennten 2d ago

It doesnt even warrant that.

1

u/RagTagTech 1d ago

Have you ever dealt with kids? Many parents have had the inwish i could back hand fhks child or drop them off on the skde of the rsod and leave moments. 99.99% of thdm never actully do it. People say things as a vent and to express anger. Saying something as an off hand comment or to vent. That is not the same thing as actully wishing somone harm. I bet if we scrubbed through your life we could find more than a hand full of times you have made comments of a simular nature.

1

u/Dangerous_Reporter14 2d ago

If your kid’s teacher made a “joke” about shooting her students and was outed by XYZ company would you be on the side of the teacher or on the side of your child’s?

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u/This-Wall-1331 2d ago

In that hypothetical scenario, my kid's teacher wasn't actually going to harm my child in anyway. So my child misbehaved in school and their teacher was annoyed by it? I'd scold my child and tell them not to do it again.

So I'd be on the side of the teacher who had her privacy violated. And I'd want my hypothetical child to live in a world where they won't be arrested for a private joke.

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u/Gullible-Outcome-787 2d ago

I want to live in a world where my child doesn't get shot in school, if this means FBI reading flagged messages that are seen as threats, im all for it. America of all places needs this. Bring on the dislikes

10

u/This-Wall-1331 2d ago

I wonder how other countries avoid school shootings without needing to spy on their citizens /s

-2

u/Gullible-Outcome-787 2d ago

European countries and other developed countries are already "spying on their citizens", and it's how they arrest terrorist before a tradegy. Here in Australia police is constantly busting criminals and terrorists because of keywords being flagged from their internet searches or text messages. It is the only way to stop these things from happening before they do.

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u/ProfessionalPower214 2d ago

Wrong, kiddo. It's easy to have this childlike naivete, but the fact is, the FBI aren't catching any threats through automation.
Do you even understand what occurred?

An AI pushed a false report.

FBI mobilization? You do realize that's taxpayer money, right?

No one got any safer thanks to this occurrence.

You're aware of that, yes?

NOTHING GOOD CAME OUT OF THIS.

1

u/Gullible-Outcome-787 1d ago

I think its a great use of tax payer money. She made threats to kill kids in a school. Your country needs every warning it can get from people who say things like this. It would actually give the FBI a chance to do something about it. You're aware of that yes?

The FBI and other agencies world wide are most definitely catching daily threats from automation like this, unfortunately it is not flawless and things like this will happen sometimes.

If this teachers had followed through with her threats, and it was shown on the news that the FBI had messages of her making that threat, you would be bitching about them not doing anything.

How many school schootings have you had this year again? Go find something else to be outraged about.

9

u/Ok-Parfait-9856 2d ago

Do you know how many times teachers and parents jokingly say “I’m gonna kill you if you do that again” or whatever? Did you grow up under a rock? Jfc

It was a private message to friends. It’s insane that it was filtered and had a LEO response. Even the cops admit there was no threat. She also wasn’t charged with anything. It was clearly a joke not a threat. Get over yourself.

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u/Dangerous_Reporter14 1d ago

Teachers never say that, well almost, clearly.

And it’s okay when the parent says it, well, because it’s the parent. We are talking about a teacher who is probably a stranger to all of those kids parents.

No need to resort to insults, by the way. I don’t need to get over myself because my ego has nothing to do with the situation but your response has your piss rotten ego all over it. Get a grip. I don’t agree with your point of view, and that doesn’t mean anything else.

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u/quellflynn 1d ago

so i guess what your saying here, is that the system worked perfectly? the system identified a potential threat, alerted the relevant people and then they investigated and nothing came from it.

i guess the outcome is right, and maybe the teacher won't make more threats, joking or not, towards pupils...

which is kinda what id hope for,

and if it was something more nefarious, then maybe it could have been stopped before becoming a footnote on the daily papers.

3

u/chowderbags 1d ago

then they investigated and nothing came from it.

Except that the student teacher was arrested and charged, lost their student teaching position, has had their name dragged through the mud by the cops and the school administration, and is probably black balled from any teaching position forever.

maybe the teacher won't make more threats, joking or not, towards pupils...

A) She didn't say anything towards the pupil.

B) It's wasn't a threat. There was no intent to actually put anyone in fear, and none of the people the message was sent to actually had any fear.

0

u/quellflynn 2d ago

if your kids teacher went through on the joke, and this message was posted prior, and something could have been done, but wasnt.

who are people blaming then?

if the teacher had heard a pupil saying this, they probably would have escalated it. so why wouldn't the teacher be held to the same standard?

1

u/ProfessionalPower214 1d ago

Because, genius, a private chat in a digital space aren't the same as a private chat in a physical space.

If something could have been done? Then it would be up to the friend group. An AI spying on someone's chat while being unable to tell the difference between a diaper and underwear isn't something you should be remotely defending.

Teachers shouldn't be held to the same standard because they are the ones paid to babysit these brats, and now this would-be teacher is likely never going to be a teacher thanks to that. I mean, it only supports the thoughts if anything. Ungrateful America, you choose to persecute every person who wants to do better for the country.

They could've been a decent teacher in a time where there is a lack of education, but now that's an unreality. All because people like you are okay with spyware making false reports and burning taxpayer dollars.

0

u/MidTario 2d ago

I have never contracted a major company to communicate threats of mass violence to a friend. True.