In February, on orders from the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, Medicaid officials created a first-of-its-kind online portal containing hundreds of millions of billing records that supposedly would allow everyday people to crowdsource investigations into healthcare fraud.

“DOGE is not a department,鈥� Elon Musk . 鈥淚t’s a state of mind.”

At the time, thousands of heavily armed federal agents were smashing into cars and battering their way into homes throughout Minnesota鈥檚 Twin Cities, under the guise of investigating what the Trump administration insisted was unchecked fraud in autism therapy committed by Somali immigrants.

There was a grain of truth: Fraud is indeed widespread in autism therapy, something a series of federal audits begun during the Biden administration found in red states and blue. In the wake of the audits鈥� release, the Trump administration raided autism centers, blaming lawless immigrants, welfare cheats and 鈥渨oke ideology鈥� for the scandals unfolding nationwide. 

But a 74 investigation found another problem entirely: a massive influx of private equity players capitalizing on the autism therapy industry to the tune of $7 billion in taxpayer-funded Medicaid payments over the course of six years. And much of this explosive growth has come at the expense of children.

The explosive growth of applied behavior analysis

社区黑料 downloaded the 275 million-record DOGE dataset and analyzed Medicaid claims for autism therapy from 2019 to 2024. Our analysis reveals how an unproven, even harmful, behavior modification system called applied behavior analysis, or ABA, is crowding out more effective 鈥� and humane 鈥� treatments for children with autism.

And it shows how a well-intentioned campaign by parents desperate to find a “cure” for their autistic kids has mushroomed into a poorly implemented but extremely lucrative mechanism for providing ABA 鈥� a system of rewards and punishments designed to eliminate certain behaviors 鈥� to as many autistic children as possible, regardless of their age or actual needs. 

Pediatricians, psychologists and other professionals who diagnose autism reflexively prescribe ABA to parents, typically unaware that there is mounting disagreement about the therapy鈥檚 effectiveness and the associated trauma that can follow an autistic individual into adulthood. Told this is the child鈥檚 best chance at a decent life, few caregivers question the guidance until harmful effects start to show.

Experts consulted by 社区黑料 weren鈥檛 surprised by our findings. Health officials turned on the fiscal taps before instituting meaningful legal oversight 鈥� creating the exact kind of loosely regulated environment that draws the opaque investment strategy employed by private equity. 

A secretive corner of the financial sector not held to the same standards as exchange-traded stocks, bank loans and other publicly monitored investments, private equity has acquired businesses in numerous industries over the last decade, hoovering up billions of dollars. 

Private equity typically acquires privately held companies that have access to steady streams of revenue, extracting as much cash as possible in the short term and leaving debt when investors move on. To maximize profits, they often deliver the easiest, most lucrative services, rather than the personalized treatments Medicaid and other public funds were supposed to pay for.

From 2019 to 2024, 社区黑料 found, Medicaid claims for the six most common autism therapy billing codes shot up some 381%, from $400 million a year to nearly $2 billion 鈥� with private equity-backed providers leading the billing pack.

Indeed, federal begun in 2022 鈥� two of them in blue states and two in red 鈥� reveal a very purple problem. They detail how bad actors in the for-profit business sector, whether greedy or merely inept, push autistic children toward ABA therapy at the expense of other, more effective supports at school that students with disabilities are guaranteed by law. 

Families whose children are referred to ABA by pediatricians and other providers are typically urged by private therapy centers to sign them up for as many hours as possible 鈥� up to 40 hours a week 鈥� and to keep them there for years. That is a prescription ripe for exploitation, says Ari Ne鈥橢man, an assistant professor of health policy and management at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and former director of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network.  

鈥淧rivate equity was attracted to ABA because the industry as a whole had set up a very tidy financial arrangement for itself,鈥� says Ne鈥橢man. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not that private equity is corrupting a previously fine field. Private equity entered the field because of the flaws that were already there.鈥� 

For fiscal year 2026, federal spending on special education . If the $2 billion now being spent every year on ABA for children with publicly subsidized health insurance were added to schools鈥� annual budgets, every district in the country could add one full-time and one half-time occupational therapist 鈥� specialists in desperate short supply who have proven success in addressing many issues facing autistic children.

DOGE鈥檚 intentions notwithstanding, many in the autism community have hoped the crisis posed by runaway Medicaid spending might present an opportunity to take a hard look at how ABA has grown into an industry with the fiscal might to stave off even basic state and federal oversight. And how it is crowding out more effective, humane alternatives, and even preventing children from going to school.

Instead, now they fear that politics will further overshadow needed autism therapy reforms. The second Trump administration has withheld some $3 billion in Medicaid funding from California and Minnesota, insisting that their governors 鈥� whom the president views as foes 鈥� are not attending to fraud. As a consequence, people with disabilities have already lost services. 

As the Medicaid cuts in Trump鈥檚 One Big Beautiful Bill go into effect, and as he and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continue to promote disproven and dangerous 鈥�cures鈥� for autism 鈥� at the cost of research into better treatments 鈥� disability advocates fear the future will look a lot like a dark past.   

ABA claims vastly outpace spending on autistic people鈥檚 quality of life

In addition to the financial boondoggles, there鈥檚 a human cost. 

During the six years of records we analyzed, Medicaid billing for ABA therapy totaled nearly $7 billion. That鈥檚 $1 billion more than the United States has spent in 20 years on research and programs under the Autism CARES Act, which pays for services to better autistic people鈥檚 lives.   

As disproportionately small as the CARES Act funding is, even after two decades of lobbying by autists and advocates, very little of it is spent on . Of the $2 billion appropriated last year, to be spent over five years, $30 million will go to creating support for caregivers, $13 million to job training and $19 million to safety and well-being.    

Now, even that modest pot of funding is imperiled, as Kennedy is redirecting federal resources toward new research on vaccines and other long-discredited 鈥渃auses鈥� of autism and dangerous, ineffective treatment strategies. 

Meanwhile, is that the most widely used therapy, ABA, is frequently ineffective and . The therapy was pioneered in the 1960s by Norwegian-born UCLA researcher Ole Ivar Lovaas, who used the same regime of rewards and punishments to develop LGBTQ conversion therapy 鈥� now widely acknowledged as abusive.

Independent researchers and autistic adults who went through ABA say its focus on 鈥渆xtinguishing鈥� natural and frequently beneficial autistic traits and in their place demanding compliance with 鈥渘ormal鈥� behaviors is traumatizing. Much as conversion therapy can鈥檛 change a person鈥檚 identity but can instead instill shame, behavior conditioning will not make autists nondisabled and sends the message their strengths are unimportant.

Lovaas is one of two early autism researchers whose histories are now known to include ties to Nazi Germany. In interviews, Lovaas said that during the five-year German occupation of Norway, he and his family were forced to labor on farms. But a 2025 report in the journal History of the Human Sciences documents his role as a local of Norway鈥檚 Nazi youth movement. The Third Reich sought to 鈥�euthanize鈥� autistic people, who were seen as a financial and genetic burden to society.  

The other autism researcher who played a role in the Nazis’ eugenics campaigns was Dr. Hans Asperger, who reported of 鈥渕alformed children鈥� to be targeted for sterilization or death. 

Proponents are quick to assert that today鈥檚 ABA is a far cry from the slaps and electric shocks of what was known as the Lovaas Method early on. Yet the goal 鈥� to 鈥渆xtinguish鈥� autistic traits in children鈥� typically remains. Kids as young as 2 are routinely subjected to as many as 40 hours a week of repetitive behavior modification drills.   

A past 74 investigation found that for years, the evidence used to legitimize ABA was produced by the industry itself, was rife with undisclosed conflicts of interest and neglected basic guardrails such as documentation of harmful 鈥渁dverse events.鈥� By contrast, independent research into ABA by the and academic scholars found little to no evidence of effectiveness.

A of 460 autistic adults and caregivers of autistic children found that nearly half of those who went through ABA showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress, while 72% of those who did not participate in the therapy were asymptomatic.   

, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ohio State University and the University of Texas at Austin found that people who had participated in ABA before age 18 were 30% more likely to experience a mental health hospitalization than autistic people who had not. Autistic people who had been treated with ABA and hospitalized were also admitted with 32% greater frequency than those who had not.   

Again, says Ne鈥橢man, the industry is predicated on a flawed, but very profitable, model. ABA industry recommendations call for every child, regardless of how young they are or what their needs are, to receive the same intensity of treatment.     

鈥淚 would argue that ABA is potentially harmful in any situation because we haven鈥檛 really addressed the ethical concerns of the potential mental health consequences,鈥� says Ne鈥橢man. 鈥淏ut even if we were to set that aside, the idea that there is an evidence base for applying ABA in all instances without regard to any consideration for age or the types of challenges that someone has, it鈥檚 just ludicrous.鈥�

鈥淔orty hours a week of therapy is a full-time job for a 3-year-old,鈥� says Ne鈥橢man. 鈥淚t鈥檚 harmful for kids and families first and foremost, but I also think it鈥檚 a poor use of public funds.鈥� 

When therapy supplants school

The four federal audits of state Medicaid spending show what advocates have long decried: ABA service providers are allowed to keep children in lucrative standalone treatment centers where they are barred by Medicaid law from receiving academic instruction 鈥� often for years after they should begin attending school.

Auditors raised similar concerns in Indiana, flagging the case of a child who was referred to ABA in January 2014 at the age of 2 and was still receiving more than seven hours of therapy a day, five days a week, at age 8 鈥� years after they should have been in school. Medicaid payments for this child increased from $52,000 a year in 2017 to more than $185,000 in 2022, when the child was 11, for a total of $677,448. 

(For perspective, state spending on school-based special education services varies wildly and is poorly reported. One often-used estimate is that an average of $26,000 is spent annually on each student with a disability, versus $9,000 per non-disabled pupil.)     

Special education teachers say that when these students show up in a classroom, it鈥檚 after years of lost academic instruction. In practice, often this means they will be denied the chance to learn alongside their typically developing peers 鈥� a right enshrined in federal law. 

Advocates say the exact number of children in this position is probably unknowable. As a youngster approaches kindergarten age, families are often warned by their ABA provider that taking their child out of private therapy and enrolling them in school will cause regression. Much as homeschoolers often do, these families can sign official documents saying they are taking responsibility for their child鈥檚 education.    

In the case of the Indiana youngster, now 11, auditors noted that the treatment plan did not say whether the child attended school, 鈥渂ut had a standardized statement: 鈥楾he patient鈥檚 family [has] taken on responsibility for meeting the educational needs of this patient.鈥� 鈥� 

After the audit, Indiana lawmakers on how much therapy centers could bill per child, and for how much time. Many children have reached or are near reaching the cap.  

A state task force appointed to address issues likely to follow the changes repeatedly heard from parents and advocates concerned about older children who, no longer eligible for Medicaid-funded ABA, would attend school for the first time. As a result, a new law allows private ABA therapists to accompany children to class for a transition period. 

How did the ABA industry get so big?

For the first 20 years after Lovaas announced he had 鈥渞ecovered鈥� 鈥� his term for cured 鈥� nine of 19 autistic children on whom he had developed ABA, the supposed miracle cure was inaccessible to almost all families. Insurers were not required to cover the diagnosis or treatment of autism.

Then, in 2005, the mother of a 4-year-old autistic boy sat down at her kitchen table and drafted a bill to require health insurers in South Carolina to cover the 鈥済old standard鈥� therapy being touted as a child鈥檚 best shot at a 鈥渘ormal鈥� life. Then she enlisted hundreds of parents of autistic children to lobby state lawmakers to pass it. 

was compelling. To afford ABA, then costing $70,000 a year, she and her husband had downsized their house and spent their home equity 鈥� plus her entire salary as a law professor 鈥� on therapy for their son, Ryan. 

The grassroots push paid off. In 2007, despite ferocious insurance industry opposition, the South Carolina legislature approved the bill 鈥� only to have the governor veto it, with just one day left in the session. 

Unumb put out another call. Accompanied by a CNN camera crew, an army of parents flooded the statehouse, demanding a veto override. 

When the vote was cast, Unumb , the lawmakers on the floor turned toward the families in the gallery and gave them a standing ovation.    

Weeks later, Unumb held a summit to teach other parents, who flew in from around the country, how she had succeeded in getting what鈥檚 known as Ryan鈥檚 Law passed. She spent the next decade working with Autism Speaks, helping to organize families in other states.

The parents had potent lobbying partners. To convince insurers that ABA was not experimental, a growing community of practitioners created an organization, the Behavior Analyst Certification Board, that set standards, bestowed credentials and promoted research. 

The board did not respond to a request for comment.  

Few questioned whether there was an inherent conflict of interest in an industry creating its own proof points. Most people were more focused on the plight of families 鈥� and the promise heralded by a miraculous, if frightfully expensive, cure. By 2019, every state required most private insurers to pay for autism services, though with wildly differing benefit levels. 

The bigger turning point occurred in 2014, when the Obama administration clarified that the Affordable Care Act required publicly subsidized care plans, including Medicaid, to pay for autism treatment. 

At the same time, the rate at which children were identified as autistic began rising dramatically. The ACA for the first time required insurers to pay for autism assessments, and improvements to diagnostic criteria helped to identify autistic children whose traits were previously missed. 

An analysis of special education Child Count data shows that between 2011 and 2022, autism鈥檚 prevalence rose from 2.3 to 6.3 per 1,000 children, with the greatest increases among those aged 5 to 8 years.

Today, Unumb is the CEO of the Council of Autism Service Providers. The organization, she wrote in an email to 社区黑料, 鈥渂elieves ABA providers must continuously earn the public鈥檚 trust in caring for children with autism. Genuine fraud, waste and abuse must be called out and punished to uphold accountability and patient safety.鈥�

鈥淏ad actors exist in every healthcare profession, including ABA, but that doesn鈥檛 mean they are prevalent,鈥� she added. 鈥淭housands of qualified, ethical ABA providers are at work every day, doing the right thing and making a difference in children鈥檚 lives.鈥�

Private equity enters the picture 

Private equity funds are groups of investors who pool their money to buy ownership stakes in privately held companies or real estate. These firms and their deals are subject to far less government oversight than public companies that trade on the stock market. They rarely disclose information about their activity. 

They typically have managers, who make decisions about the businesses they acquire but don鈥檛 put much of their own money into the investments. Frequently, the goal is to simultaneously cut costs and increase revenue to create a cash flow for the investors. The businesses are usually resold within three to five years. 

Over the last two decades, private equity has become increasingly common in healthcare, even though the acquisition of doctor鈥檚 practices, hospitals, medical equipment manufacturers and nursing homes can . In terms of public oversight, though, all those industries are tightly regulated compared to ABA. 

The mandates for insurance coverage of autism were instituted with very little initial oversight of the quality of services being provided. States that did require providers to be licensed often simply decided to recognize the ABA industry鈥檚 internal credentials.

While these standards are often stricter than a provider鈥檚 hiring requirements, the practice of adopting industry credentials leaves behavior analysts in charge of overseeing their own members. When, in the wake of a scathing federal audit of its Medicaid billing practices, Colorado recently moved to license therapists, it rejected a suggestion that a newly created oversight board contain outside professionals such as psychologists. Instead, the board will be composed of four therapists and one public member, who can also have industry ties. 

The combination of lax standards and ready cash proved irresistible to private equity firms, which began buying ABA practices and consolidating them into large, multi-state chains. From 2015 to 2024, private equity firms acquired 574 sites run by 147 providers, according to researchers from the Brown University School of Public Health.

Of the 50 largest providers by Medicaid billing in 社区黑料鈥檚 dataset, 23 are (or, in two cases, were) owned by private equity. From 2019 to 2024, their claims totaled $2 billion. 

Private equity firms own 11 of the top 15, with claims totaling more than $1.5 billion between 2019 and 2024. 

The process has dramatically reshaped an industry already in need of reform 鈥� in the wrong direction. 

鈥淭hey have created massive national chains with the primary purpose of extracting high returns in a short period of time,鈥� write the authors of 鈥�,鈥� a report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research. 鈥淐onsolidation gives private equity-owned provider organizations a large competitive advantage over other for-profit and nonprofit providers, as well those offering other approaches to [autism] services.鈥�

鈥淚t also gives them more bargaining power to negotiate higher rates for themselves vis-脿-vis state agencies, regulators and insurance payers. Some PE firms have used this leverage to extract higher reimbursements under threat of closing down sites in states in which they do not get the rates they prefer.鈥�

Many of the large networks also advertise immediate openings for autism assessments, which they tout as a quick path to enrolling in therapy. Otherwise, according to the National Institutes for Health, the median time a family spends on a wait list for an independent evaluation is a year and a half. 

How private equity works

Some private equity funds take a partial ownership stake in a business that needs cash to expand or improve. But most of those investing in autism therapy are typically buyout funds, which acquire and consolidate existing businesses.

These funds’ managers invest very little of their own money, maybe 1% or 2% of the total. Investors, which often include pension funds and other institutions, put in another 30% to 50%. The rest of the cost of the acquisition is borrowed 鈥� what鈥檚 referred to as a leveraged buyout.

To make these transactions, a fund sets up a series of companies. Responsibility for the debt is transferred to the company being acquired. 

As the purchased company struggles to make the loan payments, a share of the cash coming in is returned to the investors. Sometimes, the fund managers take out loans on the already indebted business and give the cash to their investors as a dividend.   

Meanwhile, the leaders of the investment fund 鈥� whose expertise is typically in maximizing profits 鈥� are allowed to make decisions about staffing, levels of patient care, who they will serve and where. 

ABA is supposed to be highly individualized, with therapists continually collecting data on children鈥檚 responses to repeated efforts to get them to stop behaviors deemed undesirable, such as hand-flapping or rocking, or to perform actions the therapist wants, like making eye contact. 

This information, gathered by the lowest-rung member of the ABA team, a behavior technician, is supposed to be reviewed by a credentialed provider known as a board-certified behavior analyst, who uses it to modify the child鈥檚 treatment plan on a regular basis.       

But in state audits, federal investigators found repeated instances where the therapists鈥� notes submitted as claims documentation had been copied and pasted, often day after day, bearing the names of numerous different children working with different therapists.

Notes were often signed off by therapists before they had finished the session in question, and Medicaid was frequently billed for unallowable activities, such as naps and lunch.   

For their 2023 report on private equity鈥檚 influence on ABA, investigators at the Center for Economic and Policy Research interviewed former employees of one of the oldest therapy center networks, the Centers for Autism and Related Disorders, or CARD. Founded by one of Lovaas鈥� graduate students, the chain was sold to the private equity group Blackstone in 2018 for a reported $700 million.  

The former employees said that under Blackstone鈥檚 management, they were told to prioritize younger children. Not only can smaller kids remain enrolled for several years before reaching school age, they are most likely to be referred for additional hours of therapy per week under the guise of early intervention. 

鈥淭hey would literally terminate patients in our programs who required lower hours and replace them with those requiring at least 30 to 40,鈥� the researchers quoted one former employee as saying.

CARD did not respond to requests for comment. In a statement to 社区黑料, Blackstone said the network of centers was hit by a 鈥減erfect storm鈥� of COVID-19-era lockdowns, labor shortages and low insurance reimbursement rates that led to a Chapter 11 restructuring. 

鈥淲hen it became clear that a restructuring was necessary to put the company on the best long-term path to deliver on its mission, we worked day and night 鈥� to keep its existing facilities open so the company could continue serving patients,鈥� the statement says.

The statement adds that Blackstone was never involved in specific clinical treatment decisions and had sought to increase pay, reduce caseloads and improve training and operations. 

If an individual center or an entire network is accused of fraud or found to have abused patients, the investment managers who made decisions to maximize profit can鈥檛 be held accountable. Just like the debt, liability accrues to the 鈥減ortfolio company鈥� that owns the actual centers.  

By 2022, CARD had in states with lower Medicaid reimbursement rates and made that put others out of business, shrinking from 250 centers to 100. In June 2023, it filed for bankruptcy and was bought by a group of private investors recruited by its founder.

According to 社区黑料鈥檚 dataset, in 2019, CARD billed Medicaid more than $13 million. In 2024, its Medicaid receipts were slightly less than $2 million.

Private equity鈥檚 structure shields investors and ABA network owners from liability

With corporate headquarters in Farmington, Michigan, Centria Healthcare was founded in 2009 as a pediatric nursing provider. When one of its early patients needed ABA, the company created an autism-focused division. Today, it owns centers in 11 states. 

Because the company is privately owned, its finances are largely shrouded in secrecy. But, according to the investor intelligence service Pitchbook and data gathered for the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Centria was purchased in 2016 by Martis Capital, a private equity firm specializing in acquiring North American healthcare providers. Over the next three years, Centria expanded to nine states. 

As part of a 2018 , the Detroit Free Press reported that Michigan鈥檚 attorney general was looking into claims that Centria had engaged in improper billing and service provision. The story was based on interviews with former company executives, documents obtained by reporters and allegations detailed in a defamation lawsuit the company filed against some of the past employees. 

The paper also reported that two Michigan counties had after local mental health officials cited the company for billing and care issues and an employee was abusing a child. 

Martis Capital did not respond to a request for comment.  

In a statement to the newspaper, Centria CEO Scott Barry vigorously denied the claims: “Whatever these allegations are, yes, they’re very outrageous, but they’re not true. And we’re trying to do a good job to help kids and help families and help our community.”

At the time, the company was in line for an $8 million job-creation grant secured with the backing of the state鈥檚 lieutenant governor, described by the Free Press as a longtime advocate of autism therapy. Five weeks after then-Lt. Gov. Brian Calley made the recommendation, a key company investor hosted a party kicking off Calley鈥檚 gubernatorial bid. Guests donated more than $100,000 to his campaign, the paper reported.      

The grant was put on hold while the state investigation unfolded. In March 2019, the state closed the probe, saying that while it had noted potential billing irregularities, there wasn鈥檛 enough evidence to merit criminal complaints. The grant was not reissued. 

Three former executives later sued Centria, resurfacing their allegations. Both lawsuits were eventually dismissed by the parties.

In a statement to 社区黑料, Centria CEO David Harbour said the company focuses on quality and access.

鈥淥ur work is grounded in a commitment to ethical care, clinical quality and supporting children with complex needs 鈥� including families who may have struggled to find services elsewhere,鈥� Harbour wrote. 鈥淲e strive to identify the needs of children, families and the broader healthcare system as it continues to evolve 鈥� delivering ethical, individualized care that supports the unique needs of each child and family we serve.”

But Centria doesn鈥檛 have to report whether the scandals had any impact on its bottom line. 

鈥淸Private equity firms] have nothing to lose if something goes bankrupt,鈥� says Rosemary Batt, one of the authors of the Center for Economic and Policy Research report and a professor emeritus at the Industrial and Labor Relations School at Cornell University. 鈥淚f a company gets caught in fraud, it鈥檚 just the cost of doing business.鈥�

In 2019, Centria was sold to a different private equity fund, Thomas H. Lee Partners, for $415 million. Since then, according to 社区黑料鈥檚 analysis, the company has been the country鈥檚 largest Medicaid biller, bringing in more than $440 million during our six-year window. That鈥檚 more than twice as much as the second-largest ABA company by Medicaid revenue, Lighthouse.

Thomas H. Lee did not respond to a request for comment. 

Ryan Leitner, a researcher at the Private Equity Stakeholder Project and the author of a on the ABA industry, worries that states鈥� efforts to crack down on Medicaid abuses won鈥檛 address the underlying cycle that allows investment funds to pass off a business that they鈥檝e saddled with problems.      

鈥淎 great place to start is the concept of joint liability between these [investment] firms and the company that they own and operate,鈥� says Leitner. 鈥淵ou need to have assurances that the care is going to meet some kind of benchmark, that there’s going to be some kind of joint liability if there is a problem.鈥�   

Some states, he adds, are trying to give their attorney general or another regulator the ability to stop the sale of a healthcare facility if they determine the company won鈥檛 run it properly or if a private equity firm has problems elsewhere. 

Private equity providers gravitate toward high-reimbursement states 

Writing in the January 2026 issue of the American Medical Association journal JAMA Pediatrics, a group of researchers , one showing the prevalence of children with autism diagnoses and the other assigning states 鈥済enerosity scores鈥� assessing their insurance rules regarding autism. 

Using a commercial deal tracker, they identified 574 autism service delivery sites acquired by private equity between 2015 and 2024, which they overlaid on the maps. The upshot: The states with the highest rates of diagnosis and the most generous benefits have the largest concentration of private equity-owned ABA centers. 

Home to some of the first acquisitions, Colorado, with 6 million residents, had 38 private equity-owned centers, the third-largest concentration in the country and a likely undercount, the researchers noted. Only California, home to more than 39 million people, and Texas, which has 32 million residents, had more private equity-owned ABA centers 鈥� 97 and 81, respectively. 

In February, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General released the fourth of eight state audits, finding that Colorado鈥檚 Medicaid spending on ABA mushroomed from $60 million in 2019 to $163.5 million in 2023. 

The auditors examined claims made in 2022 and 2023, finding at least $78 million in improper payments, plus an estimated $207 million in 鈥減otentially inappropriate鈥� claims. 

In Wisconsin, they found $18 million in improper payments in 2021 and 2022, plus $94 million more in potentially inappropriate payments. In Maine in 2023, $45 million in claims were improper and $22 million potentially so. In Indiana, a total of $56 million were improper in 2019 and 2020, with another $76 million potentially improper.

In Colorado, the investigators examined monthly billing records for 100 children, finding improper and potentially improper claims in every case. Seven facilities could not supply individual patients鈥� diagnoses or referrals.

Two providers 鈥� including one that auditors said 鈥渨as purchased by a nationwide ABA company that subsequently closed all of its ABA facilities in Colorado鈥� 鈥� did not respond to requests for records from state and local investigators. 

In the 96 months auditors examined, providers didn鈥檛 describe the services in some claims; four providers didn鈥檛 submit any treatment notes at all. One facility routinely said a child had engaged with peers even though the therapy was delivered at home with no other children present.          

Numerous bills described unallowed 鈥渃ustodial care,鈥� such as bathing, dressing and eating. In 67 months, facilities billed for one-to-one therapy but described group activities. 

ABA companies in Colorado

In May, the Colorado General Assembly took up legislation aimed at . At an , state officials testified that they believed there were between 410 and 500 clinics but could not say with precision because, unlike day cares, summer camps and similar facilities, autism therapy centers are not required to register with the state.  

In 2025 alone, officials received 35 reports of endangerment, including physical abuse by staff, medication mistakes, inappropriate restraint and a registered sex offender working at one center. But because ABA providers and facilities are unregulated, the state lacked jurisdiction to investigate. 

It might be the tip of the iceberg, the state officials warned lawmakers, because many participants can鈥檛 tell their families when something is wrong. At least a third of Colorado children in ABA are nonverbal, and more than 18% are age 3 or younger. 

The bill would create a behavior analyst licensing board and require the state Department of Human Services to craft standards for clinics. The board would consist of three credentialed behavior analysts, one assistant 鈥� or technician 鈥� and one member of the public. It would grant licenses to people who have been given credentials by organizations created by the ABA therapists associations.

To proponents of ABA, many of whom have nursed concerns that private equity is sullying the public profile of their industry, the bill was a huge win. But to many in the disability community, it was one more step in the wrong direction. They feared that new standards would enshrine a treatment they oppose, crowding out public support for alternatives that may be more effective and humane.       

Two parents submitted imploring legislators to oppose or amend the bill. Both cited ABA’s eugenicist roots and research on its harms.  

鈥淎utistic adults often compare ABA to gay conversion therapy, because the goal is often to make autistics appear less autistic, rather than helping them live safely and comfortably as themselves,鈥� wrote Boulder parent Jenny Thamer. 鈥淚n fact, both practices were developed by the same founder.鈥�

Among other changes, she asked lawmakers to appoint a licensed mental health professional and an autistic adult 鈥渨ho provides lived experience鈥� in place of two of the three analysts on the board; to require discipline for practitioners who engage in harmful punishments, including physical restraint and seclusion 鈥� mostly outlawed in Colorado schools 鈥� and to remove references in the bill to ABA as 鈥渂ased on scientific research.鈥�

鈥淭his bill will have lasting consequences for autistics for decades,鈥� Thamer concluded. 鈥淚 respectfully urge you not to expand this system without strong protections, independent oversight and meaningful representation from the autistic people most often harmed by these practices.鈥�

On June 2, Gov. Jared Polis signed the bill without her recommended changes. 

Graphic design by Eamonn Fitzmaurice

This investigation was produced with support from the Education Writers Association Reporting Fellowship program.

Jenny Thamer had low hopes for the meeting called by the superintendent of the Boulder Valley School District to hear from families of autistic students.

From her experience, such so-called listening sessions are often pro forma events, staged more to assuage parents than to actually brainstorm change. 

This one had been called hastily, after a handful of caregivers had complained about persistent problems in their children’s classrooms. 

The meeting was scheduled for the day after Memorial Day, after the end of the Colorado district’s 2022-23 school year. Many families would likely have already left town for summer vacation. 

Worried no one would show up, Thamer and a couple other parents put together an anonymous online survey they could present if attendance was low. 

They need not have feared. Some 50 district parents came, cautiously optimistic that Superintendent Rob Anderson would hear their pain. 

鈥淚 have to give him credit,鈥� says Thamer. 鈥淗e listened to every single caregiver story without interrupting, without rushing people. Like, he was there for it.鈥�

The meeting was scheduled to last an hour, but went on for more than four, as families described repeated phone calls from school staffers demanding they pick up their child midday, kids too anxious to go to school, trauma caused by punishments 鈥� and, in nearly every case, schools鈥� lack of interest in parents鈥� ideas.

As it happened, Anderson鈥檚 own child received special education services. 鈥淚 could understand not just in a way a superintendent could understand,鈥� he recalls, 鈥渂ut as a parent could.鈥� 

While people talked, administrators and the school board president took notes on poster-sized pads stuck to the walls. At the end of the meeting, the parents presented the leaders with the results of their survey, which drew 65 responses.

Anderson listened. And then he promised to create an autism advisory team made up of parents, community members and staff with a goal of using feedback from autistic people 鈥� who usually are not consulted about their own conditions 鈥� to change the district鈥檚 approaches. Thamer, whose child received special education services, was asked to co-chair the team. 

A year later, Boulder Valley implemented what is likely the nation’s first 鈥� and only 鈥� neurodiversity policy. Adopted by the school board in 2024, it commits district schools to using 鈥渟trategies to affirm a student’s identity, rather than trying to 鈥榝ix鈥� or 鈥榗ure鈥� them.鈥� The policy applies to all kids, not just autists. 

It鈥檚 a work in progress 鈥� in part because the policy calls for a sea change in how Boulder schools have approached educating autistic students. Intending to provide good services, the district 鈥� like a handful of mostly affluent school systems across the country 鈥� had invested heavily in hiring practitioners of an intervention called applied behavior analysis. 

Commonly referred to as ABA, the therapy was pioneered in the 1960s by Ole Ivar Lovaas, the UCLA psychologist who created LGBTQ conversion therapy. Both use a system of rewards and punishments to condition a person to act and appear 鈥渘ormal.鈥� Lovaas’ approach was quickly recognized as a human rights violation when applied to LGBTQ people, but not to autistic kids.

Lovaas did not see autistic children as fully human, which he believed justified using electric shocks, slaps and the withholding of food, among other 鈥渁versives,鈥� to 鈥渆xtinguish鈥� atypical behaviors. In a trial now regarded as dangerously flawed, he claimed to have 鈥渞ecovered鈥� 鈥� cured 鈥� nine of 19 children by subjecting them to repeated 1-on-1 drills for up to 40 hours a week.

The Lovaas Method, as ABA was originally known, is now considered the gold-standard autism intervention. Parents are typically urged to enroll their children as quickly as possible after diagnosis, as young as 2, to give them their best shot at a 鈥渘ormal鈥� life.  

Over the last decade, as laws were enacted requiring insurance coverage of autism diagnosis and therapy, the rate at which children have been identified as autistic has tripled. To serve them, a very profitable and largely unregulated treatment industry has mushroomed, pulling in nearly $2 billion a year from Medicaid alone.     

For-profit ABA is particularly strong in Colorado, in large part because of the state鈥檚 history of offering relatively generous benefits for people with disabilities. Because of ABA’s dominance 鈥� and the accompanying perception that it is the most effective way of treating autistic children 鈥� school districts are increasingly turning to practitioners to staff their special education programs, whether or not it is the proper approach for a particular child.      

Modern practitioners defend the intervention, saying ABA no longer subjects children to physical punishment. Yet documentation of its harms is mounting, as researchers 鈥� including autistic adults who underwent ABA as youngsters 鈥� gather evidence that the therapy has caused widespread PTSD. Autistic children may no longer be subjected to electric shocks or slaps to the face 鈥� and the word “aversive” may sound kinder than “punishment” 鈥� but they are routinely denied food, toys and comfort items, as well as adult attention, a strategy practitioners industrywide call 鈥�.鈥� ABA providers still frequently restrain children or confine them in isolation 鈥� practices recognized as so dangerous and traumatic as to be illegal in most circumstances in Colorado schools.

At the listening session, Thamer presented the superintendent with the results of the survey, which echoed what he had heard from parents in person. One-fourth felt the need to shorten their child鈥檚 school day because teachers could not provide a full day鈥檚 support, and nearly half had unenrolled or considered withdrawing their children. 

One-third of respondents said they had been asked to pick their kids up early from school for behavioral reasons 鈥� some frequently. A fourth said their children had been excluded from field trips and other activities. And 13% had out-of-school suspensions and 9% in-school suspensions.

Some 16% were aware their child had been subject to physical restraint or seclusion 鈥� likely a wild undercount, given the number of parents at the in-person meeting who said their kids were restrained several times a week. Historically, Colorado did not require schools to report restraint until two years ago, and still doesn鈥檛 mandate data collection on seclusion. 

More than 40% said schools focused on fixing behavior rather than uncovering the reasons for it; paid more attention to students’ 鈥渓agging neurotypical skills鈥� than to their capabilities; and used inappropriate instruction strategies. 

The families鈥� experiences were common, but the opportunity to share and be believed was novel, says Thamer. Many of the caregivers at the listening session were meeting one another for the first time. Many had assumed they were alone in rejecting guidance from the district鈥檚 supposed experts, or that no one would believe the 鈥済old standard鈥� in treatment was actually making things worse for their children. 

Just sitting in a room with so many other people sharing the same experiences was cathartic. 鈥淚 had tears hearing other people’s stories,鈥� Thamer says. 鈥淧arents carry a lot of trauma from advocating for their kids.鈥�

‘Daddy, help! Daddyyyy!’ 

One of the parents present was Sarah Piril盲. In 2019, she had come home from work to hear her 5-year-old screaming in the basement. He was working with two technicians from a local private ABA center who, in an effort to stop a meltdown, had barricaded him in a room and turned their backs on him.  

This was not a new experience for P, who is being referred to by his first initial to protect his privacy. He had been through this rewards-and-aversives cycle at home, in private childcare centers 鈥� which were quick to show the family the door 鈥� and even public school-based early childhood education. As he got bigger, so did his meltdowns.          

But on this day, Piril盲 says, she heard something very different in P鈥檚 screams. 

鈥淒addy, help,鈥� he shrieked. 鈥淒addyyyy!鈥� 

She bolted down the stairs and instantly recognized that her son wasn鈥檛 being stubborn. He was terrified.

A series of realizations crystalized in an instant, she recalls. P was being punished, over and over, for not understanding what was expected of him.

In the process, he had learned to fear interactions where he could become overwhelmed and lose control. And his parents, whom he needed to keep him safe, had invited the people meting out the punishment into his life.

In schools, isolating or confining children is known as seclusion and restraint. The psychological and physical harms are . Most states have laws limiting the practices to rare episodes in which students pose an immediate threat to themselves or others.  

Yet P鈥檚 therapists were using the tactic on purpose, in the belief that after enough repetitions 鈥� delivered under the guise of benign therapy 鈥� it would 鈥渆xtinguish鈥� some of the boy鈥檚 autistic traits.

On the surface, the goal seems perfectly rational: Grownups were trying to teach P that following instructions brings rewards. But when he didn鈥檛 comply, they鈥檇 double down, sensing defiance. The stricter the adult, the more dysregulated the child鈥檚 response. 

Piril盲 knew ABA practitioners often describe the moment she was witnessing as an 鈥渆xtinguishment burst鈥� 鈥� a last willful attempt by children to get their way by ratcheting up negative behavior. If she went to P鈥檚 aid, in the therapists鈥� eyes, she would be guilty of setting back their hard work.   

She faced a horrible dilemma: follow the therapists’ advice and let the moment play out, or listen to her gut and defy experts who could document her poor judgment in a file with P鈥檚 name on it.  

In the moment, she chose her son, scooping him up and letting him cry.

She had no way of knowing how hard it would be, even after telling the boy鈥檚 private therapists she would no longer tolerate ABA鈥檚 strategies, to keep P out of the therapy. 

Over the next seven years, the district would move him to five schools, not counting distance learning during COVID and a year when P was so traumatized that Piril盲 homeschooled him. In all but one of the schools, he was subjected to ABA.

But she had an unlikely ally. The behavior technician who had stood nose-to-nose with Piril盲 in her basement is a man named Blake Ross. And that confrontation marked a watershed moment for him, too.

The core epiphany Piril盲 had during the episode was that P鈥檚 meltdown had been perceived by the adults as a choice, when in fact it was an involuntary stress response 鈥� the fight-or-flight instinct that鈥檚 a normal part of the human nervous system. Everyone has it, but it鈥檚 especially easy to trigger in a child with an acutely sensitive neurotype. 

Ross adored P. He was devastated to realize the boy was scared of him. 鈥淭here are protocols for stuff like this,鈥� he recalls. 鈥淲e were following them, and it was making things worse.鈥�

In the ensuing weeks, Ross and Piril盲 came to an understanding. The family couldn鈥檛 meet the boy鈥檚 needs alone, and Ross was committed to finding a better way to help. Together, they started trying to understand how entrenched P鈥檚 fight-or-flight responses were, and what would happen if they developed strategies to help his nervous system avoid that traumatic response. 

Things really clicked during third grade when, with help from Ross, Piril盲 started homeschooling P mid-year. With their strategies finally working, the following year Piril盲 searched for a classroom where the adults would try what she called 鈥渘euro-informed accommodations.鈥�   

In the meantime, seeking the flexibility to use their new approach with other kids, Ross and his wife, Jenn Snow, also an ABA provider, had started their own autism therapy practice. They met with Piril盲 and the members of P鈥檚 prospective school special educators to talk about their work.  

鈥淟uckily, we found a team that would actually try it,鈥� says Snow. 鈥淎nd to magnificent effect.鈥�

A data-minded mom literally charts a new course

Before she quit her job to manage P鈥檚 needs, Piril盲 was an engineer and data strategist. Both ABA and special education are supposed to be data-driven. The theory behind ABA 鈥� the analysis being applied, as it were 鈥� is that therapists record a child鈥檚 responses to behavioral drills, routines and tasks, and then use the information to refine their tactics.

An individualized education program, the legal document that spells out how special education will meet a child’s needs, is also supposed to contain quantifiable goals and measures of progress, as well as information on behavior, adult time spent delivering services and the amount of time the student spends in a segregated classroom rather than integrated with typically developing peers. 

All special education parents quickly accumulate boxes of IEP-related documents, but Piril盲 had more: reports P鈥檚 schools sent home when he was physically restrained or isolated, forms announcing he had been suspended and messages asking her to come pick him up early. 

Because P, like many autistic kids, often refused to go to school, Piril盲 tracked his attendance. She also recorded how often he met the school鈥檚 behavior goals, his reading and writing achievement, how much time he spent in different classrooms and how many special ed services he received. 

In January 2025, after P had been enrolled in a new district school willing to work with her ideas, Piril盲 put 340 pages of IEPs and other documents 鈥� 4,000 data points collected over eight years 鈥� into a database. The results were striking.

When P was being treated with ABA, he achieved the school鈥檚 behavioral goals 25% to 50% of the time. When he was in a classroom where the adults were willing to try Piril盲鈥檚 neuro-informed strategies, his success rate was 75% to 100%.

When he was allowed to spend fewer hours and days in the school environment, his attendance actually stabilized 鈥� and his reading and writing scores shot up. As P鈥檚 fight-or-flight episodes subsided, he grew more willing to work on his least-favored tasks. As adults listened to him when he advocated for himself, he spoke more frequently.  

Piril盲 created a presentation for P鈥檚 teachers and aides, with two dozen charts showing how his IEP and ABA interventions fluctuated in effectiveness. There was a one-year window 鈥� labeled 鈥渁utistic burnout鈥� 鈥� when P was restrained 20 times, sent home another 20 times and suspended three times. 

But there were also slides listing which specific, neuro-informed strategies were in place when things were going really well: 鈥淧hysical management is to be avoided entirely鈥�; 鈥淧roactive is better than reactive鈥�; 鈥淧鈥檚 words must work or he will stop using them鈥�; 鈥淔lexibility from you = flexibility from P.鈥�

At the start of the last school year, the boy鈥檚 teachers stopped pushing ABA, Piril盲 says. But when she gave them a draft IEP written from a nervous system response lens, the educators in charge of the planning process rejected it.

Everybody on the IEP team agreed with the support plan, she says. But one team member, an ABA practitioner employed by the district, said they needed to rework it to conform with ABA鈥檚 structure. 

In Boulder Valley classrooms, what that has historically meant is that when a student exhibits a problematic behavior, educators must create a hypothesis for why it鈥檚 occurring. These hypotheses assume the child is choosing to misbehave, e.g., to get attention or to avoid an activity they don鈥檛 like. Then the therapists and teachers create goals that outline the steps of an ABA strategy for addressing the student’s actions.

鈥淭he [lead therapist] said the way I wrote it from a nervous system response perspective was much more helpful,鈥� says Piril盲. 鈥淏ut then [she] also said that she can鈥檛 use that structure, that she wasn鈥檛 able to structure an alternative path for families like mine that specifically request non-ABA approaches.鈥�  

The format of a support plan may seem like a small thing to someone who has not struggled to get their child an atypical IEP, Piril盲 says. But to her, it suggests the adults in the district are not ready to step away from something that鈥檚 not working.  

A shaky substitute for real special ed       

In 2022, the Colorado General Assembly took up a bill to allow families to request an ABA therapist of their choosing be allowed to accompany their child to school. Legislators ended up passing a dramatically amended law requiring districts to have a policy addressing the question. 

The debate, however, revealed that much of the time, schools and families were using private ABA therapy to make up for gaps in special education, childcare and disability services writ large 鈥� something also highlighted in federal audits of Medicaid spending in Colorado and several other states.   

Many of the therapists and industry representatives testified that their clients didn鈥檛 have time for both ABA and school, attended schools that had declared students鈥� needs too profound to manage or said that because they were understaffed, they could support autistic students for only a few hours a day. 

The parents who urged passage of the bill said they needed ABA to close a caregiving gap. Several said schools and preschools were quick to demand they pick their kids up midday 鈥� sometimes threatening to call the police if they didn鈥檛.

鈥淪chools are happy to abbreviate their day and make this someone else鈥檚 problem,鈥� said one. 鈥淎nd I just don鈥檛 think that鈥檚 right.鈥� 

Other parents said their kids were behind academically because they split their time between a therapy center and school. 

A lack of school staff with autism expertise and of out-of-school caregiving options for families are real problems, says Julie Reiskin, co-executive director of the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition. But behavioral therapy is not intended to address those problems. 

鈥淲e need to have childcare and schools that are not calling parents, that can keep their kid through the whole day,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut if that’s the need, then that’s what we should be funding, not one specific kind of therapy. 

鈥淲e could do it for a lot less money than this,鈥� adds Reiskin. 鈥淎nd maybe the kids will also be having more fun.鈥� 

Lindsey Trott told lawmakers there are more effective methods for helping students than ABA, but that schools lack the resources to use them. She鈥檚 now an occupational therapist, but as a teenager in the late 1990s, she was hired by a family that was implementing the Lovaas Method in their home with their nonverbal 4-year-old.

For 10 months, three days a week after school, Trott said in an interview with 社区黑料, she would sit with the boy and perform what are known in ABA as 鈥渄iscrete trials鈥� 鈥� repetitive drills of tasks like making eye contact or copying a structure made of blocks. She rewarded his compliance with a fruit snack or a cartoon break.

鈥淎fter a couple of months of working with me, when I would show up at the door, he would cry and run away,鈥� says Trott. 鈥淗e made no progress.鈥� 

In hindsight, what she thinks the family really needed was respite care. 鈥淎t the end, I felt more like I was there supporting the mom,鈥�  she recalls. 鈥淚 would stay and she would tell me things. She was sad and frustrated.鈥�        

That experience was a catalyst. In search of solutions, Trott went on to earn a master’s degree in special education and then two degrees in occupational therapy. When she was training, she shadowed a veteran OT, as the specialists are typically referred to in schools. 

They drove to several small gyms, where the experienced OT stood alongside kids doing simple gymnastics, talking to them about what they were doing. 

鈥淔or the first time, I saw nonverbal kids having fun,鈥� says Trott. 鈥淎nd I felt something about what I was seeing.鈥� 

All people regulate their emotions or nervous systems by what鈥檚 known as 鈥渟timming鈥� 鈥� making repetitive motions or noises. In contrast to things neurotypical people do unconsciously, like twisting a strand of hair, autistic peoples鈥� stims can be dramatic, such as pacing or rocking. Schools and therapists often attempt to stop stims.  

Occupational therapy鈥檚 descriptions of this are much closer to Piril盲鈥檚 ideas about the nervous system than to ABA鈥檚 concepts. Proprioceptive input 鈥� what OT refers to as 鈥渉eavy work,鈥� like jumping or other activities that engage muscles 鈥�  calms nerves and enables self-regulation. Vestibular input 鈥� sensory information the brain receives from the inner ear when a person swings or spins, among other motions 鈥� facilitates balance and movement.

If schools taught children about their nervous systems, lots of students鈥� needs would be met, not just the autistic kids鈥�, Trott believes: 鈥淚f we had a special ed teacher for every grade level and we had an OT for every campus, schools could look very different.鈥�

A 74 analysis of Medicaid billing claims revealed that spending on ABA just for children with this public, safety net healthcare now totals $2 billion a year. If that money were added to schools鈥� annual budgets, every district in the country could add one full time and one half-time occupational therapist. 

Neurodiversity training goes only so far

One of the first things Boulder Valley leaders did with the input from its Autism Advisory Team was to put together mandatory neurodiversity training for every staff member in the district. 

In a departure from typical practice, a training video was created using input from community members, says Michelle Brenner, director of special education for the district. Two of the four presenters in the video are autistic. Trainers emphasize that understanding what it means to be neurodiversity-affirming is good for everyone. 

The with a discussion of fight-or-flight and other autistic behaviors, which appear when a student feels physically unsafe or 鈥� something that is much harder for a neurotypical person to anticipate 鈥� socially unsafe.

鈥淲hen a student engages in those behaviors, often they are trying to tell us, 鈥業 feel unsafe all the time,鈥� 鈥� explains a speech-language pathologist. 鈥淭hat is the autistic experience.鈥� 

Then, an autistic high school teacher, Wren Roberts, describes what it is like to go through life in a state of hyperarousal. Indeed, she confesses that she feels unsafe talking on camera. 

鈥淚 have spent my entire life learning to hide it,鈥� she explains. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 called masking.鈥� 

Just as existing with a continually activated nervous system causes mental health issues, she notes that autistic people who mask experience high rates of depression, anxiety, insomnia and suicidal ideation.  

Up next in the video, an autistic man who volunteers in a district afterschool program outlines how a neurotypical person can figure out whether a student is feeling unsafe, and why. Finally, a high school teacher reminds the audience that while this cycle is often pronounced for autists, 鈥淥ther students are likely feeling the same way.鈥� 

As progressive as this seems compared with most other districts鈥� approaches, the mandatory training was relatively simple, says Shannon Gamble, Boulder Valley鈥檚 director of multi-tiered systems of support. Her specialty is differing strategies that are used to help students struggling with literacy or other skills.  

District leaders have created an internal data dashboard tracking how often students are restrained, how many are restrained repeatedly, whether teachers and therapists have looked for the 鈥渞oot causes鈥� of repeated problems and other indications that changes are being implemented and whether they are working. 

The training is a start, Gamble says. 鈥淎 big part of what needs to shift is mindset and understanding, and the way that we view each other and our students.鈥� 

Some families want their children to continue to receive ABA in school. But to others, who continue to push against it, the pace of change can feel glacial, they say.

鈥淥ur families come in and they’re like, ‘All right, why don’t you just go tell people to do this thing?’ ” says Gamble. “There’s things we can do right away. We can change [the language on] a form, right?鈥�  

Altering mindsets is a longer-term proposition, she continues: 鈥淚t’s going to take more than us just telling people what to do 鈥� especially things like neurodiversity, where many of our educators were taught in a way that maybe is not what our neurodiversity philosophy is telling them we believe.鈥�

Because district leaders had invested in what they thought was the best intervention for students, a number of the people leading its special education efforts hold some of ABA鈥檚 highest credentials. The persistence of their beliefs is visible in district materials.  

For example, families point to an educator training created more than a year after adoption of the neurodiversity policy that makes numerous rewards-and-consequences recommendations even as it acknowledges trauma鈥檚 role in children鈥檚 behavior. Forms distributed to classroom aides have grids for charting ABA interventions.    

A outlining the neurodiversity policy and resources also links to that outlines Boulder Valley’s ABA strategies: 鈥淭he behavior analyst is responsible for the implementation of skill acquisition and behavior support strategies aligned with current best practices from the field of applied behavior analysis (ABA) as well as responsibilities and duties within the school special education collaborative team.鈥�

Restraint and seclusion

In 2022, the U.S. Department of Education to avoid restraining and isolating students with disabilities unless a child鈥檚 behavior poses 鈥渋mminent danger of serious physical harm to themselves or others.鈥� Not only are the practices dangerous and abusive, it said, but there is no evidence they help modify disability-related behaviors. 

They are also discriminatory, the agency warned. Students with disabilities are three times more likely to be physically restrained or confined than their non-disabled classmates. Often, they face discipline because they lack proper services. 

In practice, however, it is devilishly difficult to get schools to move away from restraint and seclusion. Over the last couple of years, in several states that of even just preschoolers and early elementary age children, education administrators have lobbied statehouses to repeal the bans.  

Disability advocates push back, saying schools need to do more to support educators who are left without effective alternatives. As a result, when seclusion is prohibited, schools often simply rebrand the spaces where children are confined as time-out rooms. 

How does Boulder Valley stack up? 

Brenner and Gamble say the district鈥檚 internal data shows small improvements since the adoption of the neurodiversity policy, including a 鈥渟light reduction鈥� in the number of autistic students who are repeatedly restrained and secluded and a dramatic drop in the number subjected to formal threat evaluations under Colorado鈥檚 school safety protocol.

But in terms of collecting data on restraint, Colorado鈥檚 history is tangled. The state鈥檚 first restrictions on when a child could be physically controlled were intended to address solitary confinement and punishment in juvenile detention centers. 

The practices were supposed to be rare in schools, but the state didn鈥檛 collect any data that would allow it to measure compliance. In 2022, the Colorado General Assembly passed a law requiring districts to begin reporting by the end of the 2024 school year. 

It did not, however, address seclusion as a specific form of restraint 鈥� which all but a handful of districts interpreted as a mandate to report only episodes when a child was physically or mechanically controlled. Legislators rejected a 2025 attempt to clarify the law.

For the 2024-25 academic year, Boulder Valley told the state it physically restrained just 42 students. It did, however, of 鈥渄etrimental behavior鈥� 鈥� conduct that has a negative impact on the welfare or safety of other students or staff 鈥斕齛mong children with disabilities. Students with IEPs make up 15% of the district鈥檚 student body, but comprise one-third of those disciplined.听

While ABA practitioners鈥� stances vary, they often don鈥檛 think they are restraining a child but rather 鈥� much as took place in Piril盲鈥檚 basement 鈥� believe they are engaging in a therapeutic strategy that is to the child鈥檚 benefit.   

In 2010, the Association for Behavior Analysis International opposing 鈥渋nappropriate鈥� restraint and seclusion but supporting the interventions when used by practitioners as part of a formal plan: 鈥淲hen used in the context of a behavior intervention plan, restraint in some cases serves both a protective and a therapeutic function. These procedures can reduce risks of injury and can facilitate learning opportunities that support appropriate behavior.鈥�

In May 2025, 社区黑料 reported that the Arizona Autism Charter Schools 鈥� a network of ABA schools whose founder was chosen by President Donald Trump to oversee special education 鈥� restrained and secluded students at unusually high rates even though state law restricted the practice to emergencies.    

Often, when autistic children are sent to 鈥渂lue zones鈥� or 鈥渃ool-down corners,鈥� schools fail to see and report it as seclusion. The distinction that鈥檚 lost: a space students can retreat to of their own volition when overwhelmed 鈥� and leave when calmer 鈥� is different from seclusion.

The fact that the district has adopted a neurodiversity policy but also proclaims ABA will remain in place infuriates Piril盲. If you ask her, there鈥檚 no reason state and local officials can鈥檛 do their own version of her analysis of which strategies contributed to P鈥檚 dysregulation and which enabled him to stay calm and engaged. They鈥檙e just choosing not to.  

‘The most important message’

One of the first things Jenny Thamer did as co-chair of the Autism Advisory Team 鈥� a role she played for two years before moving on 鈥� was to send out a second survey, consisting of a single, open-ended question: 鈥淧lease tell us the most important message(s) you or your child want educators to know.鈥�

The replies were consistent: 

鈥淚t is our job as adults to figure out why [kids] are not doing well. Children should never be left to figure it out on their own.鈥�

鈥淢y child does not need to make eye contact to be listening. He is not avoiding instruction by not making eye contact.鈥�

鈥淢y child may look fine on the outside to you, but inside they are almost paralyzed with anxiety.鈥� 

鈥淢y child may communicate differently, but that doesn鈥檛 mean he doesn鈥檛 want to be involved.鈥�

Anderson, the superintendent, says he鈥檚 committed to fully implementing the district’s neurodiversity policy. True recognition of the array of ways in which people experience Boulder Valley鈥檚 schools will benefit every student and educator, he says, autistic or not.   

鈥淭he idea that we understand the challenge and the needs of a neurodiverse community, and that we are locking arms to meet those needs, that鈥檚 good for all kids,鈥� he says.    

鈥淭his is really hard work. I鈥檓 not here to tell you we鈥檝e solved the problems. But these things aren鈥檛 hidden anymore. They鈥檙e not whispered.鈥�

After publication, the district provided data showing 42 students were physically restrained during the 2024-25 school year.

This investigation was produced with support from the Education Writers Association Reporting Fellowship program.

The coverage mandates these parents helped secure have driven hundreds- and even thousands-fold increases in Medicaid spending on ABA 鈥� an unproven, even harmful, behavior modification system that uses rewards and punishments to try to eliminate certain behaviors.

Over the last decade, the ready flow of cash has attracted private equity, a type of investment that purchases large shares of companies that are not publicly traded. Through cost cutting and other restructuring methods, these short-term investors try to boost revenue before selling the businesses for a profit. With scant state or federal oversight, they have also acquired nursing homes, facilities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, medical equipment providers and other healthcare industries that rely on taxpayer dollars to profit.      

Now, states 鈥� which put few regulatory guardrails on the ABA industry, on private equity鈥檚 role in healthcare in general or on Medicaid reimbursement 鈥� are cracking down. Even before a series of damning federal commissioned by the Biden administration were released in recent months, lawmakers and health officials have proposed capping the amount of ABA an individual child can receive and how much providers can bill, as well as imposing standards on clinics and therapists. 

As states have revisited Medicaid reimbursement rates and other policies that impact providers鈥� financial bottom lines, two types of ABA-related debates have played out in statehouses. One involves the ABA industry鈥檚 entrance into state-level political spending; the other, efforts by providers and caregivers to require public schools to allow the therapist of a family鈥檚 choosing to accompany their student to class.  

The start of statehouse spending 

Individual state legislative races are relatively cheap to influence. While parents have long packed hearing rooms to testify against threatened cuts to autism services, in recent years some of the industry鈥檚 largest, private equity-owned ABA providers have begun making campaign donations to candidates for state-level office who could sway legislation on ABA oversight, Medicaid reimbursement rates, whether private autism therapists should be allowed in schools and other laws that impact providers鈥� profits.  

Lobbying and campaign finance reporting requirements vary widely from state to state. Using records compiled by the political spending watchdog group Open Secrets, 社区黑料 was able to identify instances when ABA lobbyists donated to state-level campaigns around the country at consequential moments, to benefit the companies the lobbyists represented. 

In 2022, Florida lawmakers passed a law allowing behavior technicians from private, for-profit ABA centers to accompany kids to school 鈥� opening a new and potentially lucrative market. While reimbursement rates vary by state, private ABA centers typically bill insurers for behavior technicians鈥� time at $50 to $100 an hour. Special education classroom aides employed by public schools, in comparison, frequently make about $25 an hour.  

Campaign contributions made that year by two of ABA鈥檚 largest private equity-owned concerns, Hopebridge Autism Therapy Centers and Acorn Health, would barely cover a lobbyist鈥檚 bar tab at a Washington, D.C., watering hole. 

Hopebridge Autism Therapy gave a total of $10,000 to nine incumbent lawmakers and one challenger. Acorn Health gave $7,500 to the state House Republican Campaign Committee and $3,333 to the Florida Republican Party. 

It was a small expense for two of the country’s largest autism therapy companies, which between 2019 and 2024 brought in almost $200 million 鈥� nearly $134 million for Hopebridge and more than $63 million for Acorn, according to a 74 analysis of Medicaid ABA billing records. 

The largest company by Medicaid revenue, Centria Healthcare, was paid more than $400 million between 2019 and 2024, according to 社区黑料鈥檚 analysis. The company spent almost $200,000 in Oregon and Indiana in three election cycles: 2020, 2022 and 2024. 

In 2024 in Indiana, where a federal audit would soon find up to $133 million in improper Medicaid ABA claims from multiple providers, sparking caps and cuts, Centria gave $25,000 to gubernatorial candidate Michael Braun.

As governor, Braun created a state applied behavior analysis to consider ways to rein in costs while continuing to serve autistic children. The group鈥檚 membership is dominated by ABA practitioners.

In Oregon, the company gave former Rep. Dan Rayfield $55,000 during his last two terms as House speaker, followed by $25,000 for his successful 2024 run for attorney general. The state House Democratic Campaign committee received $50,000, while 13 other lawmakers got contributions of $1,000 to $10,000.

On the table: A to expand the state鈥檚 private insurance autism therapy mandate until 2030 and a to extend Oregon鈥檚 ABA mandate to conditions other than autism, such as intellectual and developmental disabilities 鈥� potentially opening significant new markets. The law mandating continued coverage of autism treatment was enacted.

The bill to expand the disability categories for which ABA practitioners can be reimbursed faced significant pushback. Testimony submitted to lawmakers included of research on the therapy鈥檚 effectiveness for conditions other than autism, such as Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and epilepsy. It concluded the evidence is thin. The measure is still pending in the state House. 

Facing Medicaid rate cuts, Utah Behavior Services (now known as Bridgeway Integrated Healthcare Services) 鈥� with Medicaid revenue of some $196 million, according to 社区黑料鈥檚 dataset 鈥� spent some $41,000 to influence 21 contests, including state auditor. Action Behavior Centers, which collected $1.7 million in reimbursements between 2021 and 2024, spent $2,500 .  

Must schools allow private ABA in classrooms?

Special education law requires schools to provide 鈥渕edically necessary鈥� services to children whose ability to attend school and learn depends on them. For the most part, school districts can pass these costs along to Medicaid or another public healthcare plan, or to a family鈥檚 private insurer.   

Commonly cited examples are children who need a nurse to manage their airway or feeding tube, or have a condition that requires physical therapy. Historically, ABA has not been recognized as a medically necessary service. Schools typically try to meet students鈥� behavioral and communications needs in other ways.    

In 2022, two Colorado lawmakers introduced a bill to require school districts to enshrine autism therapy as medically necessary. Administrators from the Colorado Consortium of Directors of Special Education, the Englewood and Cherry Creek school districts and others expressed concern with the bill. 

They would be liable for the in-school conduct of a technician they don鈥檛 employ, several of those commenting said. And, most practically problematic, schools would be legally responsible for figuring out how to make up the academic instruction that students would miss while engaging in therapy during the school day.

The General Assembly eventually passed a version of the bill not specifically addressing ABA. Instead, it requires districts to have policies outlining how they will address medically necessary services.  

Louisiana and Pennsylvania recently enacted laws saying schools must accept autism therapy technicians. The requirements are too new to assess results.

This investigation was produced with support from the Education Writers Association Reporting Fellowship program.

Senior reporter Jo Napolitano spent nearly a year and a half calling 630 high schools in every state plus Washington, D.C. to test whether they would admit a 19-year-old Venezuelan transplant who spoke little English and whose education was interrupted after ninth grade. Using her own name, she told school officials the new arrival was her nephew, that he had recently moved to their district and was eager to resume his studies. 

鈥淗ector Guerrero,鈥� a stand-in for others like him, was refused 330 times, including more than 200 denials in states where he had a legal right to attend according to his age. Many schools, including those that reluctantly accepted him, tried hard to steer Hector to GED programs, adult education or community college 鈥� anything but public school.

社区黑料鈥檚 investigation, which exposed a pervasive hostility and suspicion toward older newcomers, proved enrollment for this group is arbitrary across the map, with little consistency within states, counties or school districts: Staffers within the very same building sometimes disagreed. 

And those answering these high-stakes enrollment questions 鈥� from temporary office workers to school principals 鈥� often provided bad information. 

Almost all 50 states and D.C. have laws establishing a maximum age for public school enrollment. In 35 states and the District of Columbia, general education students can attend high school to at least 20 鈥� often to 21. 

社区黑料 reached out to 25 states and the U.S. Capitol where Hector was within the maximum enrollment age but faced a high volume of rejections to alert education department officials to our findings.

鈥淚t is very concerning that there is confusion among school districts about this issue,鈥� said Jackie Matthews of the Illinois State Board of Education. 鈥淲e are updating our enrollment to clarify the maximum age of enrollment and are issuing additional guidance to address specific questions about enrolling newcomer students. We hope to bring greater clarity to the field.鈥�

Illinois, where students can stay in high school until age 21, had among the highest refusal rates of any state in the country 鈥� 25 out of 32 schools turned Hector away.

In Chicago alone, he was rejected by seven out of eight high schools 鈥� and was likely to be refused by one other. Among the rejections: Benito Juarez Community Academy, founded in 1977 when a group of Latina mothers in their neighborhood.

鈥淲e are concerned anytime we hear reports that a prospective student and/or family member may have been turned away from their right to a free public education,鈥� a spokeswoman for the city鈥檚 public schools, which serve , wrote in an email. 鈥淲e have shared the findings on specific schools and are doubling down on our efforts to ensure those particular schools 鈥� and all staff 鈥� understand the law and our own CPS policies.鈥�

The school system, like many other districts and state education departments around the country, noted it has long taken steps to educate staff about newcomers鈥� rights. Chicago Public Schools, which at the district level has 鈥� many arriving to the city after being bused from southern states 鈥� called it 鈥渁 matter of rightful presence.鈥�

The New Mexico Public Education Department鈥檚 general counsel drafted a memorandum to all districts and charters outlining their legal obligations to these and other students. A spokeswoman there confirmed the action is in response to 社区黑料鈥檚 findings. The memo was sent out in early August.

鈥淪chool districts and charter schools have a responsibility to educate these students regardless of  their relative academic ability or likelihood of success,鈥� it reads. 鈥淭hey are entitled to receive as much education as other students, until graduation or equivalent, or aging out of the public school system.鈥� 

State education officials in Michigan say they need additional legislative action to guarantee students鈥� rights. Spokesman Bob Wheaton said current state law is silent on whether districts must enroll prospective students who will turn 19 or 20 during the school year 鈥� even though the law states such students are eligible to attend and school districts receive state aid for supporting them. 

鈥淪tate law says these students are eligible to attend but doesn鈥檛 say schools must enroll them,鈥� Wheaton wrote. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why we support legislation to change that.鈥� 

Hector was turned down by 11 of 16 Michigan high schools with one other saying it would likely refuse him. Wheaton said a team of staffers within the department is working to explore and recommend a change to the statute鈥檚 language.

He said 社区黑料鈥檚 investigation 鈥渟hines a light on the need for states to improve not just their policy in this area but the implementation of their policy.鈥�

Officials in D.C., where Hector was rejected by 6 out of 7 schools, also vowed to take action on the issue before the start of the academic year. The Office of the State Superintendent of Education will 鈥渆nsure staff consistently share key resources and information with any student or family that contacts a school about enrollment, so that the correct process can be followed and the student enrolled,鈥� a spokesman wrote. 

社区黑料 called 20 high schools in Georgia, where students have a right to attend until age 21, and received 14 refusals and two likely rejections. The state education department did not pledge to take any additional steps to ensure immigrant students鈥� rights based on our findings 鈥� but the Atlanta Public Schools had a starkly different reaction. 

A district administrator who works with multilingual learners reached out to 社区黑料 two days after our story published and said the 50,000-student school system had been “diligently educating our registrars to ensure no eligible student is denied enrollment in our district.” She said it intended to take further steps based on our findings. 

State education department officials in Minnesota, Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, Mississippi and South Carolina said they will reach out to all of the individual schools that refused Hector 鈥� in addition to numerous other measures 鈥� while Colorado said it will contact the districts as a whole.   

Colorado will also advise school superintendents of their responsibility toward these students at upcoming presentations and conferences, a spokesman said. It will highlight enrollment in the commissioner鈥檚 monthly communication to superintendents for August and include periodic reminders throughout the school year.

Virginia, where Hector was accepted by just 1 out of 11 schools, also pledged to act on our findings. 

鈥淵our reporting showed that a number of our school divisions could use a refresher on the current enrollment requirements, so we are using the start of the school year as an opportunity to remind all divisions of the obligations involving enrollment,鈥� state education officials said. 鈥淚t is not something we would usually send.鈥�

The North Dakota Department of Public Instruction holds an annual workshop in the summer for school administrators, typically in August, to help prepare for the new school year. At this year鈥檚 gathering, a spokesperson said, the department will remind administrators of the state law about maximum age for school admittance 鈥� and ask that they ensure staffers who handle enrollment are made aware of it. 

North Dakota must admit all students who have not turned 21 by Aug. 1 of that school year.

鈥淭his reminder will certainly be verbal and I suspect there will also be a written reminder as well,鈥� the spokesperson said. 鈥淚鈥檓 sure your story will be mentioned.鈥�

The department has also reached out to the two high schools that refused Hector. 

社区黑料 contacted a minimum of five high schools in each state. Napolitano then added hundreds more in various locations across the country based primarily on the number and percentage of Hispanic and immigrant residents living there. The calls, which numbered in the thousands, were made between February 2023 and May 2024. They were recorded in those states that allow for one-party consent. 

Roughly 1.1 million people ages 18 to 20 entered the United States between 2012 and 2021, according to the Migration Policy Institute. 

社区黑料 aimed to expose how schools handle enrollment requests for older immigrant  students in this openly xenophobic era, one in which the southern border has become a and more and more Americans say for the country despite newcomers bring. 

Conservative forces have been from school for . They now want schools to collect information on students鈥� immigration status when they enroll and charge tuition for undocumented children or the children of undocumented parents. Such steps would defy 鈥� and potentially set the stage to overturn 鈥� Plyler v. Doe, the landmark 1982 Supreme Court ruling that a child cannot be denied a public education based on immigration status. 

Texas, which has and is constantly pushing for even more , had among the worst acceptance rates in the nation: 18 of 29 schools refused to admit Hector. Two others said they were likely to turn him away. 

The Texas Education Agency said it shared 社区黑料鈥檚 findings with the state鈥檚 Special Investigations Unit. It’s unclear what action may be taken. In Texas, where roughly is an immigrant, students can remain in high school until age 21 and, if a school district accepts them, . 

State education officials in Alaska, Hawaii and Maine 鈥� where Hector was denied by 16 of 27 total schools 鈥� did not respond to repeated calls and emails asking for comment. 

Educators and advocates from across the country reached out to 社区黑料 on their own shortly after our June 17 investigation was published to report that these discriminatory enrollment practices were widespread 鈥� sometimes involving immigrants as young as 17.

Several said they were heartened to hear at least some states are moving quickly to re-enforce the law.

鈥淚 believe that when people are reminded of the facts and stop to think about the importance of allowing all students to pursue an education, they will push for positive change,鈥� said student immigration advocate and policy expert Timothy Boals. 

Adam Strom, of Re-Imagining Migration, said immigrant students still face barriers once they enter school, but getting through the door is a crucial first step.

鈥淭hat work begins, but does not end, with ensuring that all eligible students have unfettered access to education,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here is more work to be done to ensure equitable educational opportunities, however this is a hopeful start.鈥�

This story was produced with support from the Education Writers Association Reporting Fellowship program.

The approach, known as 鈥渂alanced鈥� literacy, has been dominant in U.S. classrooms for decades, but has come under fire recently amid and exposing its shortcomings. Criticism crescendoed this fall after the release of the influential podcast, which linked America鈥檚 鈥溾�� to schools鈥� use of literacy materials that teach children to guess words they don鈥檛 know based first on pictures and sentence structure 鈥� a method called 鈥渢hree cueing.鈥�

But actually ridding classrooms of these approaches may prove challenging. Since Oct. 20 when the podcast launched, districts have continued to make large purchases of materials that include the problematic three-cueing tactics.

Over that time span, at least 225 districts have spent over $1.5 million on new books, trainings and curriculums linked to three cueing, according to 社区黑料鈥檚 review of their purchase orders accessed through the data service . Two districts 鈥� Palatine, Illinois and Conroe, Texas 鈥� each spent over $170,000 on the materials and four others spent more than $50,000.

Previous analyses have highlighted sales going to the reading materials鈥� primary publisher, finding some large school systems had spent over the last decade. But this report is the first known to zero in on individual districts鈥� purchasing of the key authors in question, spending decisions made during a national re-examination of literacy instruction.

Along with books and worksheets, at least nine districts indicated that they had paid for new professional development in the flawed literacy approaches and schools made at least 85 purchases of an assessment system for early readers .

The numbers likely understate the total because school districts in many cases have not yet submitted their more recent purchase orders to the GovSpend database, a process which can take several months, GovSpend staff said. From Oct. 21 to Nov. 31, the database shows over $1.2 million in total spending on the curricular materials, and from Dec. 1 through Feb. 27, the date 社区黑料 pulled the figures, under $350,000.

Matthew Mugo Fields, president of New Hampshire-based Heinemann, the publisher at the center of Sold a Story, said none of his company鈥檚 literacy programs are designed to prioritize guessing.

鈥淕uessing at words in lieu of decoding is not the instructional intent of those programs,鈥� he said.

In some cases, district officials stood by the literacy materials, saying their teachers swear by them. Others defended their purchases as one tool among many at educators鈥� disposal for teaching kids how to read, acknowledging that they were insufficient on their own.

Krissy Hufnagel, curriculum director for schools in Mason, Ohio, the state where balanced literacy first took root, said her district had to bolster their supply of books after losing some of the titles they sent home with families during the pandemic. She has followed along for years the debate over how best to teach literacy, she said, and 鈥渁bsolutely鈥� agrees with her district鈥檚 $69,500 purchase in October of guided reading materials for first graders from the Fountas and Pinnell Classroom, one of the key curriculums whose efficacy has been cast into doubt.

鈥淚t鈥檚 just one piece of the puzzle,鈥� Hufnagel said. 鈥淲e purchased decodables, we purchased read-alouds and we purchased guided, leveled books.鈥�

Decodable books encourage young readers to develop their skills in phonics by using words they can sound out and by excluding pictures that would give away challenging words. Schools are increasingly prioritizing phonics-based instruction thanks to a documenting its central role in how young children can become strong readers.

Heinemann says it is working to incorporate its stand-alone phonics materials into its other existing programs. In the Oct. 21 to Feb. 27 timeframe, 13 districts鈥� purchase orders mentioned phonics and totaled roughly $4,300.

Timothy Shanahan, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois Chicago studying early literacy, described the mix-and-match approach as a 鈥渂andage.鈥� The most common curriculums that incorporate cueing 鈥� the Reading Recovery program, Lucy Calkins鈥檚 鈥淯nits of Study鈥� and Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell鈥檚 鈥淟eveled Literacy Intervention鈥� 鈥� have a limited research base, he said.

鈥淵ou’re actually teaching kids to read like poor readers rather than like good readers,鈥� he said. Students may still make progress using those techniques, but their gains are 鈥渙verwhelmingly鈥� better when learning via a more structured, phonics-driven approach.

Vicky Wieben is a parent who said she鈥檚 seen the harms of three cueing first hand. When her son struggled to read in the early grades, their school in an affluent suburban district outside Des Moines, Iowa, sent home books from the Reading Recovery program along with laminated instructions for the parents. The sheet told her to prompt her son to look at the picture when he didn鈥檛 know a word, then use the surrounding words for context and, if none of that worked, see if he could sound it out using the letters, she said.

鈥淎nything that took any kind of sounding out 鈥� he would just be silent,鈥� Wieben said. His teacher joked that the child鈥檚 imagined stories were better than the books themselves. But the mother knew that was a red flag. 鈥淗e would make up what he was seeing in the picture and hope that that was good enough,鈥� she said.

Her son, now a seventh grader, still has 鈥渉oles and gaps鈥� even in elementary school content, she said, and tested at a third-grade level in sixth grade.

Millions of other youngsters have had similar struggles. In 2022, national exams showed two-thirds of U.S. fourth graders were below proficient in reading, the age by which educators hope young people will have finished learning to read and begun reading to learn. Scores dipped after the pandemic, but even before COVID, only 35% of learners notched at or above proficient.

In an effort to turn things around, more than half of states have promoting the 鈥�science of reading,鈥� an approach that, compared to balanced literacy, places a greater emphasis on sounding out words.

Sara Hunton, curriculum coordinator for Portales schools in New Mexico, said her district had to purchase 鈥渟upplemental materials鈥� after the state鈥檚 2019 law because the Leveled Literacy Intervention program they use isn鈥檛 on the state鈥檚 approved list.

Researchers like Shanahan emphasize that the debates are 鈥渘ot black and white,鈥� and that studies show young learners need not just phonics instruction, but also lessons in vocabulary and access to challenging reading material, among other things.

In 2022, Lucy Calkins, a professor at Columbia University鈥檚 Teachers College once revered for her literacy program, updated her curriculum to give students more direct instruction in phonics. Fields, Heinemann鈥檚 president, said the Fountas and Pinnell Classroom is going through a similar update process and will be including more decodable books in its next iteration. Fields did not specify any elements of either program that the authors are removing and distanced their instruction from the three-cueing method.

鈥淲e don’t use, nor have we ever used, the term 鈥榯hree cueing,鈥� to refer to what it is that we do,鈥� he said.

Michelle Faust, a literacy coach working in Lexington, South Carolina, was skeptical of the new Units of Study. Over a decade ago, she was trained in the Calkins approach, but soon saw its weaknesses in the classroom. Yet, she was pleasantly surprised with the updates.

鈥淢y kindergarten teachers have been working with the new Units [of Study] this year 鈥� and they are science of reading people 鈥� and they are happy with the revisions,鈥� she said. 鈥淟ucy has taken the Sold a Story podcast to heart and revised accordingly.鈥�

Updated or not, Terri Marculitis, director of curriculum and instruction for Middleborough Public Schools in Massachusetts, said her district will never again purchase materials from Fountas and Pinnell Classroom. The school system bought materials until last school year, she said, and the results were 鈥減oor at best.鈥�

鈥淲e have students in high school who have significant gaps in foundational literacy,鈥� she said. She attributes those holes to the flawed curriculum 鈥�100%.鈥�

Fields did not respond directly when asked whether Heinemann鈥檚 sales had changed in the wake of Sold a Story, but said the company has had to have 鈥渃larifying conversations鈥� with several school district customers in recent months.

Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell declined 社区黑料鈥檚 request for an interview. Lucy Calkins sent a written statement.

鈥淥ur new publications are informed by the science of reading research, new research on comprehension and by ongoing classroom-based research,鈥� she said. The professor, whose LLC through which districts hire her team for training is reportedly worth , added that she holds monthly office hours to help educators implement her materials on the ground.

Emily Hanford, the American Public Media reporter who created the blockbuster Sold a Story series, said she鈥檚 not surprised schools are continuing to purchase the materials her podcast warned against. Yes, reading instruction needs to change, she said. Yes, schools need to do better. But 鈥渘o one changes a culture quickly,鈥� Hanford said.

鈥淭here are people who have been using these materials for a long time. 鈥� These ideas have been entrenched in American education for decades now, so things aren’t going to necessarily change quickly.鈥�

See the full list of district purchase orders marked Oct. 21 though Feb. 27:

Megan Waskiewicz used to sit at the top of the bleachers, rest her back against the wall and hide her face behind the glow of a laptop monitor. While watching one of her five children play basketball on the court below, she knew she had to be careful. 

The mother from Pittsburgh didn鈥檛 want other parents in the crowd to know she was also looking at child porn.

Waskiewicz worked as a content moderator for Gaggle, a surveillance company that monitors the online behaviors of some 5 million students across the U.S. on their school-issued Google and Microsoft accounts. Through an algorithm designed to flag references to sex, drugs, and violence and a team of content moderators like Waskiewicz, the company sifts through billions of students鈥� emails, chat messages and homework assignments each year. Their work is supposed to ferret out evidence of potential self-harm, threats or bullying, incidents that would prompt Gaggle to notify school leaders and, .

As a result, kids鈥� deepest secrets 鈥� like nude selfies and suicide notes 鈥� regularly flashed onto Waskiewicz鈥檚 screen. Though she felt 鈥渁 little bit like a voyeur,鈥� she believed Gaggle helped protect kids. But mostly, the low pay, the fight for decent hours, inconsistent instructions and stiff performance quotas left her feeling burned out. Gaggle鈥檚 moderators face pressure to review 300 incidents per hour and Waskiewicz knew she could get fired on a moment鈥檚 notice if she failed to distinguish mundane chatter from potential safety threats in a matter of seconds. She lasted about a year.

鈥淚n all honesty I was sort of half-assing it,鈥� Waskiewicz admitted in an interview with 社区黑料. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 enough money and you鈥檙e really stuck there staring at the computer reading and just click, click, click, click.”

Content moderators like Waskiewicz, hundreds of whom are paid just $10 an hour on month-to-month contracts, are on the front lines of a company that claims it saved the lives of 1,400 students last school year and argues that the growing mental health crisis makes its presence in students鈥� private affairs essential. Gaggle founder and CEO Jeff Patterson has warned about 鈥渁 tsunami of youth suicide headed our way鈥� and said that schools have 鈥渁 moral obligation to protect the kids on their digital playground.鈥� 

Eight former content moderators at Gaggle shared their experiences for this story. While several believed their efforts in some cases did shield kids from serious harm, they also surfaced significant questions about the company鈥檚 efficacy, its employment practices and its effect on students鈥� civil rights.

Among the moderators who worked on a contractual basis, none had prior experience in school safety, security or mental health. Instead, their employment histories included retail work and customer service, but they were drawn to Gaggle while searching for remote jobs that promised flexible hours. 

They described an impersonal and cursory hiring process that appeared automated. Former moderators reported submitting applications online and never having interviews with Gaggle managers 鈥� either in-person, on the phone or over Zoom 鈥� before landing jobs.

Once hired, moderators reported insufficient safeguards to protect students鈥� sensitive data, a work culture that prioritized speed over quality, scheduling issues that sent them scrambling to get hours and frequent exposure to explicit content that left some traumatized. Contractors lacked benefits including mental health care and one former moderator said he quit after repeated exposure to explicit material that so disturbed him he couldn鈥檛 sleep and without 鈥渁ny money to show for what I was putting up with.鈥�

Gaggle content moderators encompass as many as 600 contractors at any given time and just two dozen work as employees who have access to benefits and on-the-job training that lasts several weeks. Gaggle executives have sought to downplay contractors鈥� role with the company, arguing they use 鈥渃ommon sense鈥� to distinguish false flags generated by the algorithm from potential threats and do 鈥渘ot require substantial training.鈥� 

While the experiences reported by Gaggle鈥檚 moderator team platforms like Meta-owned Facebook, Patterson said his company relies on 鈥淯.S.-based, U.S.-cultured reviewers as opposed to outsourcing that work to India or Mexico or the Philippines,鈥� as . He rebuffed former moderators who said they lacked sufficient time to consider the severity of a particular item.

鈥淪ome people are not fast decision-makers. They need to take more time to process things and maybe they鈥檙e not right for that job,鈥� he told 社区黑料. 鈥淔or some people, it鈥檚 no problem at all. For others, their brains don鈥檛 process that quickly.鈥�

Executives also sought to minimize the contractors鈥� access to students鈥� personal information; a spokeswoman said they only see 鈥渟mall snippets of text鈥� and lacked access to what鈥檚 known as students鈥� 鈥減ersonally identifiable information.鈥� Yet former contractors described reading lengthy chat logs, seeing nude photographs and, in some cases, coming upon students鈥� names. Several former moderators said they struggled to determine whether something should be escalated as harmful due to 鈥済ray areas,鈥� such as whether a Victoria鈥檚 Secret lingerie ad would be considered acceptable or not. 

鈥淭hose people are really just the very, very first pass,鈥� Gaggle spokeswoman Paget Hetherington said. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 really need training, it鈥檚 just like if there鈥檚 any possible doubt with that particular word or phrase it gets passed on.鈥� 

Molly McElligott, a former content moderator and customer service representative, said management was laser focused on performance metrics, appearing more interested in business growth and profit than protecting kids. 

鈥淚 went into the experience extremely excited to help children in need,鈥� McElligott wrote in an email. Unlike the contractors, McElligott was an employee at Gaggle, where she worked for five months in 2021 before taking a position at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in New York. 鈥淚 realized that was not the primary focus of the company.”

Gaggle is part of a burgeoning campus security industry that鈥檚 seen significant business growth in the wake of mass school shootings as leaders scramble to prevent future attacks. Patterson, who founded the company in 1999 by that could be monitored for , said its focus now is mitigating the .

Patterson said the team talks about 鈥渓ives saved鈥� and child safety incidents at every meeting, and they are open about sharing the company鈥檚 financial outlook so that employees 鈥渃an have confidence in the security of their jobs.鈥�

鈥榃e are just expendable鈥�

Under the pressure of new federal scrutiny along with three other companies that monitor students online, it relies on a 鈥渉ighly trained content review team鈥� to analyze student materials and flag safety threats. Yet former contractors, who make up the bulk of Gaggle鈥檚 content review team, described their training as 鈥渁 joke,鈥� consisting of a slideshow and an online quiz, that left them ill-equipped to complete a job with such serious consequences for students and schools.

As an employee on the company鈥檚 safety team, McElligott said she underwent two weeks of training but the disorganized instruction meant her and other moderators were 鈥渕ore confused than when we started.鈥�

Former content moderators have also flocked to employment websites like Indeed.com to warn job seekers about their experiences with the company, often sharing reviews that resembled the former moderators鈥� feedback to 社区黑料.

鈥淚f you want to be not cared about, not valued and be completely stressed/traumatized on a daily basis this is totally the job for you,鈥� one on Indeed. 鈥淲arning, you will see awful awful things. No they don鈥檛 provide therapy or any kind of support either.

鈥淭hat isn鈥檛 even the worst part,鈥� the reviewer continued. 鈥淭he worst part is that the company does not care that you hold them on your backs. Without safety reps they wouldn鈥檛 be able to function, but we are just expendable.鈥� 

As the first layer of Gaggle鈥檚 human review team, contractors analyze materials flagged by the algorithm and decide whether to escalate students鈥� communications for additional consideration. Designated employees on Gaggle鈥檚 Safety Team are in charge of calling or emailing school officials to notify them of troubling material identified in students鈥� files, Patterson said.

Gaggle鈥檚 staunchest critics have questioned the tool鈥檚 efficacy and describe it as a student privacy nightmare. In March, Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey and similar companies to protect students鈥� civil rights and privacy. In a report, the senators said the tools could surveil students inappropriately, compound racial disparities in school discipline and waste tax dollars.

The information shared by the former Gaggle moderators with 社区黑料 鈥渟truck me as the worst-case scenario,鈥� said attorney Amelia Vance, the co-founder and president of Public Interest Privacy Consulting. Content moderators鈥� limited training and vetting, as well as their lack of backgrounds in youth mental health, she said, 鈥渋s not acceptable.鈥�

In to lawmakers, Gaggle described a two-tiered review procedure but didn鈥檛 disclose that low-wage contractors were the first line of defense. CEO Patterson told 社区黑料 they 鈥渄idn鈥檛 have nearly enough time鈥� to respond to lawmakers鈥� questions about their business practices and didn鈥檛 want to divulge proprietary information. Gaggle uses a third party to conduct criminal background checks on contractors, Patterson said, but he acknowledged they aren鈥檛 interviewed before getting placed on the job.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of contractors. We can鈥檛 do a physical interview of everyone and I don鈥檛 know if that’s appropriate,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t might actually introduce another set of biases in terms of who we hire or who we don鈥檛 hire.”

鈥極ther eyes were seeing it鈥�

In a previous investigation, 社区黑料 analyzed a cache of public records to expose how Gaggle鈥檚 algorithm and content moderators subject students to relentless digital surveillance long after classes end for the day, extending schools鈥� authority far beyond their traditional powers to regulate speech and behavior, including at home. Gaggle鈥檚 algorithm relies largely on keyword matching and gives content moderators a broad snapshot of students鈥� online activities including diary entries, classroom assignments and casual conversations between students and their friends. 

After the pandemic shuttered schools and shuffled students into remote learning, Gaggle oversaw a surge in students鈥� online materials and of school districts interested in their services. Gaggle as educators scrambled to keep a watchful eye on students whose chatter with peers moved from school hallways to instant messaging platforms like Google Hangouts. One year into the pandemic, Gaggle in references to suicide and self-harm, accounting for more than 40% of all flagged incidents. 

Waskiewicz, who began working for Gaggle in January 2020, said that remote learning spurred an immediate shift in students鈥� online behaviors. Under lockdown, students without computers at home began using school devices for personal conversations. Sifting through the everyday exchanges between students and their friends, Waskiewicz said, became a time suck and left her questioning her own principles. 

鈥淚 felt kind of bad because the kids didn鈥檛 have the ability to have stuff of their own and I wondered if they realized that it was public,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 just wonder if they realized that other eyes were seeing it other than them and their little friends.鈥�

Student activity monitoring software like Gaggle has become ubiquitous in U.S. schools, and 81% of teachers work in schools that use tools to track students鈥� computer activity, according to a recent survey by the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology. A majority of teachers said the benefits of using such tools, which can block obscene material and monitor students鈥� screens in real time, outweigh potential risks.

Likewise, students generally recognize that their online activities on school-issued devices are being observed, the survey found, and alter their behaviors as a result. More than half of student respondents said they don鈥檛 share their true thoughts or ideas online as a result of school surveillance and 80% said they were more careful about what they search online. 

A majority of parents reported that the benefits of keeping tabs on their children鈥檚 activity exceeded the risks. Yet they may not have a full grasp on how programs like Gaggle work, including the heavy reliance on untrained contractors and weak privacy controls revealed by 社区黑料鈥檚 reporting, said Elizabeth Laird, the group鈥檚 director of equity in civic technology. 

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know that the way this information is being handled actually would meet parents鈥� expectations,鈥� Laird said. 

Another former contractor, who reached out to 社区黑料 to share his experiences with the company anonymously, became a Gaggle moderator at the height of the pandemic. As COVID-19 cases grew, he said he felt unsafe continuing his previous job as a caregiver for people with disabilities so he applied to Gaggle because it offered remote work. 

About a week after he submitted an application, Gaggle gave him a key to kids鈥� private lives 鈥� including, most alarming to him, their nude selfies. Exposure to such content was traumatizing, the former moderator said, and while the job took a toll on his mental well-being, it didn鈥檛 come with health insurance. 

鈥淚 went to a mental hospital in high school due to some hereditary mental health issues and seeing some of these kids going through similar things really broke my heart,鈥� said the former contractor, who shared his experiences on the condition of anonymity, saying he feared possible retaliation by the company. 鈥淚t broke my heart that they had to go through these revelations about themselves in a context where they can鈥檛 even go to school and get out of the house a little bit. They have to do everything from home 鈥� and they鈥檙e being constantly monitored.鈥� 

Gaggle employees are offered benefits, including health insurance, and can attend group therapy sessions twice per month, Hetherington said. Patterson acknowledged the job can take a toll on staff moderators, but sought to downplay its effects on contractors and said they鈥檙e warned about exposure to disturbing content during the application process. He said using contractors allows Gaggle to offer the service at a price school districts can afford. 

鈥淨uite honestly, we鈥檙e dealing with school districts with very limited budgets,鈥� Patterson said. 鈥淭here have to be some tradeoffs.鈥� 

The anonymous contractor said he wasn鈥檛 as concerned about his own well-being as he was about the welfare of the students under the company鈥檚 watch. The company lacked adequate safeguards to protect students鈥� sensitive information from leaking outside the digital environment that Gaggle built for moderators to review such materials. Contract moderators work remotely with limited supervision or oversight, and he became especially concerned about how the company handled students鈥� nude images, which are reported to school districts and the . Nudity and sexual content accounted for about 17% of emergency phone calls and email alerts to school officials last school year, . 

Contractors, he said, could easily save the images for themselves or share them on the dark web. 

Patterson acknowledged the possibility but said he wasn鈥檛 aware of any data breaches. 

鈥淲e do things in the interface to try to disable the ability to save those things,鈥� Patterson said, but 鈥測ou know, human beings who want to get around things can.鈥�

鈥楳ade me feel like the day was worth it鈥�

Vara Heyman was looking for a career change. After working jobs in retail and customer service, she made the pivot to content moderation and a contract position with Gaggle was her first foot in the door. She was left feeling baffled by the impersonal hiring process, especially given the high stakes for students. 

Waskiewicz had a similar experience. In fact, she said the only time she ever interacted with a Gaggle supervisor was when she was instructed to provide her bank account information for direct deposit. The interaction left her questioning whether the company that contracts with more than 1,500 school districts was legitimate or a scam. 

鈥淚t was a little weird when they were asking for the banking information, like 鈥榃ait a minute is this real or what?鈥欌�� Waskiewicz said. 鈥淚 Googled them and I think they鈥檙e pretty big.鈥�

Heyman said that sense of disconnect continued after being hired, with communications between contractors and their supervisors limited to a Slack channel. 

Despite the challenges, several former moderators believe their efforts kept kids safe from harm. McElligott, the former Gaggle safety team employee, recalled an occasion when she found a student鈥檚 suicide note. 

鈥淜nowing I was able to help with that made me feel like the day was worth it,鈥� she said. 鈥淗earing from the school employees that we were able to alert about self-harm or suicidal tendencies from a student they would never expect to be suffering was also very rewarding. It meant that extra attention should or could be given to the student in a time of need.鈥� 

Susan Enfield, the superintendent of Highline Public Schools in suburban Seattle, said her district鈥檚 contract with Gaggle has saved lives. Earlier this year, for example, the company detected a student鈥檚 suicide note early in the morning, allowing school officials to spring into action. The district uses Gaggle to keep kids safe, she said, but acknowledged it can be a disciplinary tool if students violate the district鈥檚 code of conduct. 

鈥淣o tool is perfect, every organization has room to improve, I鈥檓 sure you could find plenty of my former employees here in Highline that would give you an earful about working here as well,鈥� said Enfield, one of 23 current or former superintendents from across the country who Gaggle cited as references in its letter to Congress. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 always going to be pros and cons to any organization, any service,鈥� Enfield told 社区黑料, 鈥渂ut our experience has been overwhelmingly positive.鈥�

True safety threats were infrequent, former moderators said, and most of the content was mundane, in part because the company鈥檚 artificial intelligence lacked sophistication. They said the algorithm routinely flagged students鈥� papers on the novels To Kill a Mockingbird and The Catcher in the Rye. They also reported being inundated with spam emailed to students, acting as human spam filters for a task that鈥檚 long been automated in other contexts. 

Conor Scott, who worked as a contract moderator while in college, said that 鈥�99% of the time鈥� Gaggle鈥檚 algorithm flagged pedestrian materials including pictures of sunsets and student鈥檚 essays about World War II. Valid safety concerns, including references to violence and self-harm, were rare, Scott said. But he still believed the service had value and felt he was doing 鈥渢he right thing.鈥�

McElligott said that managers鈥� personal opinions added another layer of complexity. Though moderators were 鈥渉eld to strict rules of right and wrong decisions,鈥� she said they were ultimately 鈥渂eing judged against our managers鈥� opinions of what is concerning and what is not.鈥� 

鈥淚 was told once that I was being overdramatic when it came to a potential inappropriate relationship between a child and adult,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here was also an item that made me think of potential trafficking or child sexual abuse, as there were clear sexual plans to meet up 鈥� and when I alerted it, I was told it was not as serious as I thought.鈥� 

Patterson acknowledged that gray areas exist and that human discretion is a factor in deciding what materials are ultimately elevated to school leaders. But such materials, he said, are not the most urgent safety issues. He said their algorithm errs on the side of caution and flags harmless content because district leaders are 鈥渟o concerned about students.鈥� 

The former moderator who spoke anonymously said he grew alarmed by the sheer volume of mundane student materials that were captured by Gaggle鈥檚 surveillance dragnet, and pressure to work quickly didn鈥檛 offer enough time to evaluate long chat logs between students having 鈥渉eartfelt and sensitive鈥� conversations. On the other hand, run-of-the-mill chatter offered him a little wiggle room. 

鈥淲hen I would see stuff like that I was like 鈥極h, thank God, I can just get this out of the way and heighten how many items per hour I鈥檓 getting,鈥欌�� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like 鈥業 hope I get more of those because then I can maybe spend a little more time actually paying attention to the ones that need it.鈥欌�� 

Ultimately, he said he was unprepared for such extensive access to students鈥� private lives. Because Gaggle鈥檚 algorithm flags keywords like 鈥済ay鈥� and 鈥渓esbian,鈥� for example, it alerted him to students exploring their sexuality online. Hetherington, the Gaggle spokeswoman, said such keywords are included in its dictionary to 鈥渆nsure that these vulnerable students are not being harassed or suffering additional hardships,鈥� but critics have accused the company of subjecting LGBTQ students to disproportionate surveillance. 

鈥淚 thought it would just be stopping school shootings or reducing cyberbullying but no, I read the chat logs of kids coming out to their friends,鈥� the former moderator said. 鈥淚 felt tremendous power was being put in my hands鈥� to distinguish students鈥� benign conversations from real danger, 鈥渁nd I was given that power immediately for $10 an hour.鈥� 

A privacy issue

For years, student privacy advocates and civil rights groups have warned about the potential harms of Gaggle and similar surveillance companies. Fourteen-year-old Teeth Logsdon-Wallace, a Minneapolis high school student, fell under Gaggle鈥檚 watchful eye during the pandemic. Last September, he used a class assignment to write about a previous suicide attempt and explained how music helped him cope after being hospitalized. Gaggle flagged the assignment to a school counselor, a move the teen called a privacy violation. 

He said it鈥檚 鈥渏ust really freaky鈥� that moderators can review students鈥� sensitive materials in public places like at basketball games, but ultimately felt bad for the contractors on Gaggle鈥檚 content review team. 

鈥淣ot only is it violating the privacy rights of students, which is bad for our mental health, it鈥檚 traumatizing these moderators, which is bad for their mental health,鈥� he said. Relying on low-wage workers with high turnover, limited training and without backgrounds in mental health, he said, can have consequences for students. 

鈥淏ad labor conditions don鈥檛 just affect the workers,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t affects the people they say they are helping.鈥� 

Gaggle cannot prohibit contractors from reviewing students鈥� private communications in public settings, Heather Durkac, the senior vice president of operations, said in a statement. 

鈥淗owever, the contractors know the nature of the content they will be reviewing,鈥� Durkac said. 鈥淚t is their responsibility and part of their presumed good and reasonable work ethic to not be conducting these content reviews in a public place.鈥� 

Gaggle鈥檚 former contractors also weighed students’ privacy rights. Heyman said she 鈥渨ent back and forth鈥� on those implications for several days before applying to the job. She ultimately decided that Gaggle was acceptable since it is limited to school-issued technology. 

鈥淚f you don鈥檛 want your stuff looked at, you can use Hotmail, you can use Gmail, you can use Yahoo, you can use whatever else is out there,鈥� she said. 鈥淎s long as they鈥檙e being told and their parents are being told that their stuff is going to be monitored, I feel like that is OK.鈥� 

Logsdon-Wallace and his mother said they didn鈥檛 know Gaggle existed until his classroom assignment got flagged to a school counselor. 

Meanwhile, the anonymous contractor said that chat conversations between students that got picked up by Gaggle鈥檚 algorithm helped him understand the effects that surveillance can have on young people. 

鈥淪ometimes a kid would use a curse word and another kid would be like, 鈥楧ude, shut up, you know they鈥檙e watching these things,鈥欌�� he said. 鈥淭hese kids know that they鈥檙e being looked in on,鈥� even if they don鈥檛 realize their observer is a contractor working from the couch in his living room. 鈥淎nd to be the one that is doing that 鈥� that is basically fulfilling what these kids are paranoid about 鈥� it just felt awful.鈥� 

If you are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.

Disclosure: Campbell Brown is the head of news partnerships at Facebook. Brown co-founded 社区黑料 and sits on its board of directors.

鈥淣ot very good aim,鈥� responds Randy Boyden, a school resource officer with the police department in South St. Paul, Minnesota, called in for backup that day by school staff.

鈥淲hat are you going to do?鈥� the brash fourth-grader spits back before taking another shot. 

Sydney, a victim of child abuse and neglect whose real name 社区黑料 is shielding, suffers from multiple disorders and, as a result, struggles to regulate her behavior and emotions. She fell into an hours-long fit of rage that day after not wanting to go to Spanish class, including wielding a pair of scissors, throwing a chair against a classroom window and biting and kicking her teacher. She landed blows on several of the adults in the room and by the time the cops arrived, school staff had already restrained Sydney in an effort to de-escalate the situation.

鈥淚f you get it into my mouth, I鈥檒l eat it,鈥� Boyden tells the overwrought girl in an exchange that student disabilities experts saw as taunting and one called 鈥渞eally disturbing.鈥�

Sydney throws two more crackers before she climbs onto a high cabinet, rips a speaker off the wall and flings it to the ground. At this moment, it seems most likely the student could hurt herself, yet it isn鈥檛 until she scampers down and jabs a SMART Board with a marker that the adults move in.

Special education teacher Tony Phillips and school Principal Terry Bretoi grab her by the elbows, force her to walk in circles and then lower her to the ground. As they press down on her arms and shoulders, Boyden and another police officer, Mellissa Cavalier, join in. The officers hold Sydney to the carpet by her kneecaps as she tries to break free, squirming and whimpering in distress. Eventually, she lets go of the marker, stops resisting and her 75-pound body goes limp. 

The final physical struggle inside her elementary school involving the police lasts for nearly six, difficult-to-watch minutes. Students like Sydney, Black and in special education, are among the most likely in the U.S. to be physically restrained in school. Except for the occasional cell phone video, however, the highly controversial tactic is rarely witnessed by outsiders. In Sydney鈥檚 case, the video documentation recorded on police body cameras is even more remarkable because it captures the second time in little more than a week that educators and those same two officers physically restrained the disabled girl during a mental health crisis.

Just eight days earlier, after she ran out of school, six adults dragged her by the limbs and forced her into the back of a police car where they locked her inside as she put words to her misery. 

鈥淚 hate school, I hate work and I want to die,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what鈥檚 wrong.鈥�

This story is based on records provided exclusively to 社区黑料 by Sydney鈥檚 adoptive parents, including the police body-cam footage, audio recordings, police reports, special education reports, disciplinary records and other documents. The videos, after being edited to obscure Sydney鈥檚 identity, were shared with experts who commented for this story. 社区黑料 sought out the officers and school staff in the videos, some of whom have since changed jobs or plan to soon. They either did not respond or declined to be interviewed.

After watching videos from both incidents, special education attorney Wendy Tucker said they reaffirmed 鈥檚 opposition to police presence in schools, particularly when it comes to their interactions with children who are disabled. When George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in nearby Minneapolis, it generated a national conversation about police use of force. Dozens of districts nationwide cut ties with the police, who

鈥淭his video demonstrates front and center the problem of mixing kids with disabilities and police officers,鈥� said Tucker, the national nonprofit鈥檚 senior policy director. 鈥淭his girl is the poster child for removing law enforcement from schools.鈥� 

Imminent danger vs. property damage

For Sydney鈥檚 adoptive parents, whose real names were also changed to protect their daughter, the video footage from the two incidents in the winter of 2019 spurred a years-long campaign to hold officials accountable for the girl鈥檚 cuts, bruises and mental scars. In response, the Minnesota Department of Education found that school staff violated state law, but officers never faced similar sanctions. In late February, the education department sent a letter notifying Sydney鈥檚 parents that they would investigate an allegation that she 鈥渕ay have been mentally injured鈥� by school staff.

Robert, the girl鈥檚 father, said that educators and police had only intensified his daughter鈥檚 struggles 鈥� a reality he said reflects America鈥檚 bleak mental health system. Rather than understanding the girl鈥檚 disabilities and calming the situation, he charged, they responded with excessive force and a desire to take control. It remains unclear the degree to which the two school resource officers were trained in how to de-escalate situations involving children with disabilities.

鈥淧olice aren鈥檛 designed to respond to this type of thing, it鈥檚 not their job,鈥� Robert said. 鈥淭heir job is to find the killer, it鈥檚 to stop the speeding car that robbed a bank. It鈥檚 not necessarily to respond to the school for a 9-year-old that鈥檚 having a mental health crisis.鈥� 

Educators and police were clearly placed in a volatile situation with Sydney. Federal law requires school officials to accommodate Sydney and other children with special needs, but some educators have acknowledged they struggle to support students with the most significant behavioral health issues. Sydney鈥檚 case highlights those complexities and the challenges educators face when thrust into these highly fraught interactions. 

Sheldon Greenberg, a former police officer and education professor at Johns Hopkins University, offered a different assessment of how the police interacted with Sydney. Good officers have 鈥渁n incredible sixth sense about people鈥檚 behavior鈥� and follow a 鈥渦se-of-force spectrum鈥� that begins with verbal persuasion and moves up to physical confrontation. Officers can generally de-escalate situations without physical force, Greenberg said, and in responding to Sydney, the officers 鈥渇ollowed the spectrum beautifully.鈥� 

鈥淭hey were patient, there was gentle talk in the beginning,鈥� he said. Ultimately, he said that officers must assess crisis situations and prevent them from escalating. 

Sydney, already debilitated by childhood trauma, said she tries hard to forget about the times school staff and campus cops grabbed her arms and legs and held her down 鈥� at times in violation of state education law. 

鈥淚 just feel comforted knowing that I鈥檓 out of that school,鈥� said Sydney, who switched elementary schools just weeks after the incidents and is now in middle school. She reflected on the source of her outbursts, which have grown less frequent. 鈥淚 feel unloved and stuff, and a lot of sad and dark feelings.鈥� 

Thousands of students in Minnesota and across the country are despite efforts to curtail a practice that鈥檚 led to injuries and, in rare cases, death. In Minnesota, state law only allows educators to restrain disabled children in emergency situations where someone is in imminent danger of physical harm. Experts questioned whether Sydney鈥檚 behavior had reached that threshold and said that school officials appeared more concerned with preventing property damage. 

During the part of the incident inside the special education classroom captured on video, officials didn鈥檛 use physical force until she stabbed at the costly SMART Board. The state banned student in 2013. 

Robert believes that physical restraints are necessary when children present imminent danger to themselves or others. But in their interactions with Sydney, he believes the adults responded excessively. Rather than protecting Sydney, the police and school staff assaulted her, Robert alleged, and falsely imprisoned her when they secluded her in the back of the squad car.

鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 just the police trying to force her into the back of a police car,鈥� Robert said, adding that school staff were similarly at fault. 鈥淲hy, in this case, are they saying to the school employees, 鈥榊eah, let鈥檚 force her into the back of the car 鈥� you can help.鈥欌��

The South St. Paul Public Schools acknowledged that they changed their practices after the state Education Department found they violated the law in restraining Sydney. The district said student privacy rules prohibited them from discussing the case further. The South St. Paul Police Department cleared the officers of any wrongdoing, the police chief said.

鈥楽uch an extreme鈥�

Both of the officers had interacted with Sydney before and knew at least some of her history. One of them, Cavalier, was there on one of the worst days: When the little girl was placed into foster care. Yet in the footage, she dismisses the girl鈥檚 distress as a desire to stay home and watch movies. 

鈥淭hat鈥檚 the whole thing,鈥� Cavalier says while Sydney is locked in the car, 鈥渟he doesn鈥檛 want to be in school today.鈥� 

Sydney was born with fetal alcohol syndrome to a mother whose losing battle with addiction had forced the family into homelessness. A victim of physical abuse and neglect, she was placed with her adoptive family after school staff watched her biological mother hit Sydney with a belt during a February 2017 meeting on campus, according to police records. Though school officials called police 鈥� including Cavalier 鈥� to the scene, Robert said their failure to immediately intervene shattered his adopted daughter鈥檚 trust in them.

鈥淣obody in the room made attempts to stop that from happening,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he principal was there and didn鈥檛 stop it immediately.鈥�

On the same day Sydney was beaten by her mother and humiliated at school, Robert and Julia, who had begun the process to become foster parents, got the call: Sydney was in need of emergency placement. The couple scrambled to open their home as refuge to a child they knew little about. They fed her McDonald鈥檚, collected her belongings 鈥� a teddy bear, hair brushes and clothes that had grown too tight 鈥� in a small pink bin and introduced her to their dogs Lucy, Finley and Lola. Lucy, a Pomeranian seemingly aware of the girl鈥檚 recurring nightmares, slept in Sydney鈥檚 bedroom every night for a year. 

By that time, Sydney, then 6, already had a history of school suspensions for aggressive behavior. First-time parents, Robert and Julia learned almost immediately that Sydney was struggling to identify and control her emotions. 

鈥淗er body doesn鈥檛 know what the emotion she鈥檚 feeling is,鈥� Robert said. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e having this emotion and you don鈥檛 know what it is, she would tend to panic and freak out. Instead of going, 鈥業 feel sad, I feel happy,鈥� she didn鈥檛 know what those emotions actually were.鈥� 

In addition to fetal alcohol syndrome, Sydney was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, ADHD and , a serious condition that results when children鈥檚 basic needs for comfort, affection and care are not met. She was placed in special education, but Sydney鈥檚 parents said that school staff failed to fully comprehend the root causes of her outbursts, and instead wrote them off as willful misbehavior. The can mimic misbehavior, and Tucker, of The Center for Learner Equity, said it鈥檚 critical for educators to recognize that such actions are a form of communication. 

鈥淲hen they鈥檙e communicating that they鈥檙e struggling or they鈥檙e having a hard time, the worst thing that you can do is exacerbate that by physically holding them down and taking more control from them,鈥� she said. 

Sydney, who attends myriad therapies, said she鈥檚 鈥渏ust matured a little bit鈥� since the incidents in the video. Her parents say she鈥檚 made significant progress and they are not aware of any restraints in school since then. To her, there was no confusion about the source of her meltdowns. 

鈥淚 guess some trauma,鈥� the self-aware 11-year-old said in an interview, adding that her biological mother was frequently absent and in jail. 鈥淪o I guess, kind of neglect.鈥�

Once in her new home, Sydney’s outbursts continued and Robert and Julia were getting beaten up as they tried to calm her, including the time Julia had to get stitches after getting hit in the lip. Such scenes may have deterred others, but for the couple, who would adopt Sydney in 2018, the bond had already been forged.

鈥淲e fell in love with her the first week she was here,鈥� Robert said. 鈥淚t was 鈥楾his kid is so cool, I love this kid.鈥� Part of me didn鈥檛 want her to ever leave.鈥�

Still, her behaviors were a force to be reckoned with, so they signed up for a training program on crisis prevention, which included instruction on de-escalation and how to use physical restraints. Parents don鈥檛 generally enroll in the program, which is designed for special education teachers and emergency responders. The course, Robert said, was 鈥渙ne of the best things that we have done.鈥�

Ironically, at the same time the couple was attending a December 2019 , school staff called to report that Sydney was in crisis. Once they obtained the police body-cam footage of her getting pinned to the floor in the special education classroom, Robert and Julia said it was their training that allowed them to conclude that the restraints placed on their daughter differed drastically from what they had been taught.

鈥楴owhere in [the training course] does it say 鈥榟old down their kneecaps and their elbows and their wrists, and twist them up,鈥欌�� Julia said. 鈥淵ou have four adults on her already. Why do they go to such an extreme?鈥�

鈥楧o we need to handcuff you?鈥�

On the day she would find herself locked in a cop car, Sydney had been struggling in math class, so she fled. Overwhelmed, she bolted from school and stood in a nearby street, where she attempted to get struck by oncoming traffic. 

Yet officials don鈥檛 use force until she throws what her suspension report describes as 鈥渓andscaping blocks.鈥� One block comes close to striking Phillips, the special education teacher. Another clobbers a parked pickup truck. 

That鈥檚 when officer Cavalier gives Sydney an ultimatum 鈥� go back to school or wait in the back of her squad car 鈥� before tugging on the girl by her arm. 

鈥淲e can鈥檛 damage people鈥檚 property and we can鈥檛 hurt anybody,鈥� Cavalier says before the girl tries to kick free and drops to her knees in the middle of the street. Together, Cavalier, Boyden and four school employees grab her arms and legs and force her into the car, where she puts up a fight. As she tries to escape from the back seat, Sydney at one point reaches for Boyden鈥檚 gun. 

鈥淒o we need to handcuff you?鈥� Cavalier asks Sydney in response. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to do that but you can鈥檛 just start grabbing things that don鈥檛 belong to you.鈥� 

Greenberg, the Johns Hopkins professor, said the public generally sees police use-of-force during extreme, worst-case scenarios. Though he said the video footage involving Sydney provides a limited window into those incidents, he felt the officers 鈥渟howed incredible restraint before applying restraint.鈥� 

鈥淵ou can tell when someone is reaching a point that harm to self or harm to others is about to occur,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou just know it, you feel it and you know you have to do something to minimize that harm.鈥�

Police officers who are stationed inside schools full time generally are given much greater discretion than educators in how they respond to disruptive students. Just last year, efforts in Minnesota to adopt modest regulations to officers鈥� restraint practices in schools fell short. State legislation would have prohibited cops from placing students in the face-down 鈥減rone restraint,鈥� 鈥� like the one used on George Floyd 鈥� and would have required them to receive the same training as school staff. The state education department, which endorsed the reforms, will continue to promote the changes, assistant commissioner Daron Korte, who oversees student support services, told 社区黑料.

鈥淲e just wanted to make sure that there鈥檚 at least a minimum level of training,鈥� that officers know how to use safe restraint techniques and understand 鈥渢hat this should be used in a last-ditch emergency situation,鈥� he said. 

While some advocates oppose all forms of student restraints, Robert and Julia believe that physical holds are necessary in some emergency situations if done properly. When Sydney was in the street, for example, school staff could have used a brief hold to move her to the grass. They also could have moved her to a room in the school with a padded floor and a mini-trampoline. Instead, they dragged her by the limbs and locked her in the back of the police car.

鈥淲hy would you let a child who says 鈥業鈥檓 going to kill myself鈥� and 鈥業鈥檓 going to go sit in that street and I鈥檓 going to get hit by a car,鈥� why wouldn鈥檛 you restrain them at that point so they don鈥檛 commit suicide?鈥� Julia asked. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not necessarily against restraint, but you have to have trusted people who are well trained, who are doing it with dignity and have the right intentions.鈥� 

Similar situations have come up in the past. In 2015, the American Civil Liberties Union sued a Kentucky sheriff鈥檚 deputy for handcuffing two elementary school students above the elbow who were acting out as a result of their disabilities. One incident was captured in a viral cell phone video. That case ended with . In 2020, the city of Flint, Michigan, a lawsuit accusing an officer of excessive force when he handcuffed a disabled 7-year-old boy for roughly an hour after he ran around on school bleachers and kicked a supply cart during an afterschool program. 

In Sydney鈥檚 case, West Resendes, a legal fellow with the ACLU鈥檚 disability rights program, said school staff used improper restraint techniques in both incidents to control the girl鈥檚 disability-related behaviors and shouldn鈥檛 have called the police for help. In their interactions with Sydney, he said that officials treated her 鈥渘ot as a human being but as an object鈥� and were unclear about why she was being restrained.

“Seeing the male officer egg her on about not having good aim or wasting crackers was really disturbing 鈥� and it predictably and directly led to an escalation of the situation,” Resendes said.

鈥楳ake sure that this doesn鈥檛 happen again鈥�

Sydney is Black and her adoptive parents are white 鈥� a reality the couple said gave them a new perspective on the police and racial bias. On multiple occasions, her outbursts have prompted aggressive police responses. 

During one episode at the Mall of America, officers accused Robert of trying to abduct his daughter, he said. On another occasion, Robert had a gun pulled on him by a cop who mistook an exchange in the family car between him and a distraught Sydney as an assault. 

Though officers backed off once they understood the context, Robert thought the cop might shoot him. In 2016, that same officer was involved in the fatal shooting of a man in crisis outside a McDonald鈥檚 restaurant. He was shot 15 times. 

Sydney鈥檚 parents and special education advocates said that race was a likely factor in how educators and police responded and believe she may have been treated differently if she were white. 

Dave Webb, the district superintendent, declined to be interviewed but said in an email that the district does not use physical restraints to discipline students. He acknowledged they had to update their restraint procedures to match state law after the two incidents with Sydney but said they had not been held liable for using the tactic in a way that is racially discriminatory. 

鈥淭he district takes its obligation to comply with the laws governing restrictive procedures very seriously and provides ongoing training to its staff to comply with those legal requirements,鈥� Webb said. 

Years of federal education data have found that students of color 鈥� especially those with disabilities 鈥� are disproportionately restrained in schools. In Minnesota, Black students were 11.8 percent of students in special education during the 2019-20 school year but were subjected to 27 percent of the physical holds documented in schools, . 

That school year, the latest for which state data is available, student restraints dropped by 25 percent, a change officials attributed to the pandemic as students learned from home during the second half of the year.

Initially, educators鈥� responses 鈥渓ooked textbook鈥� when they talked calmly and tried to comfort Sydney, said Joshua Ladd, a staff attorney at the Minnesota Disability Law Center, but he faulted school staff for allowing police officers to take the lead in both situations as if they 鈥渉ad given up and just decided to start watching.鈥� Ladd said that school staff were clearly unable to support Sydney鈥檚 needs and that her behaviors 鈥� such as bolting from class 鈥� were a form of communication. 

鈥淚 would describe her communication as saying 鈥業鈥檓 not safe here and I can鈥檛 trust adults because adults have let me down my entire life,鈥欌�� he said. 鈥溾�業 have learned to protect myself and take care of myself because the adults around me have failed me.鈥欌��

After acquiring the body-cam footage, Sydney鈥檚 parents filed a formal complaint and a state education department investigation found that school staff broke the law when they restrained the girl in 鈥渘on-emergency鈥� situations, among other violations. The officers never faced any repercussions. Both incidents were investigated but no disciplinary action was taken against the two school resource officers, South St. Paul Police Chief William Messerich wrote in an email. He declined to comment further.

District officials were required to undergo training and update school policy to make clear that staff could not restrain kids to 鈥減revent serious property damage鈥� consistent with state law. They also required school staff to reassess Sydney鈥檚 special education services. 

鈥淚t already happened, there鈥檚 nothing you can do to go back in time to stop that from happening,鈥� Korte, the assistant commissioner, said of the incidents. But moving forward, district staff were required to develop a strategy 鈥渢o make sure that this didn鈥檛 happen again.鈥�

Sydney鈥檚 parents were left longing for more. The interventions did little to help their daughter鈥檚 suffering, they said, or to hold officials accountable for pinning her to the ground. Robert, a mechanic, and Julia, a teacher, considered suing the district and the police, but were discouraged by the cost of hiring an attorney. 

A could result in educators losing their licenses. Robert said he filed multiple complaints against the educators who restrained Sydney but the state initially declined to open an inquiry. He said that changed just weeks ago after Sydney鈥檚 therapy team submitted a report stating that she suffered trauma directly related to the restraints at school. 

The investigation raises the possibility that Sydney鈥檚 parents may get confirmation of something they’ve long maintained 鈥� that their daughter was abused in a manner that went beyond poor training or outdated policy.

They realize 鈥嬧�媜ther parents of disabled children never get near that level of resolution 鈥� and believe they may not have either without video evidence.

鈥淗ow many kids, how many nonverbal kids, does it happen to?鈥� Robert asked. 鈥淜ids that can鈥檛 go home and tell their parents 鈥榊eah, there were four adults pinning me to the ground today.鈥� They just come home and destroy the house and the parents are left wondering what is going on.鈥�

As a talent show came to a close in the winter of 2007, hundreds of children and parents poured out of a Minneapolis high school only to be met by the piercing blast of gunfire. 

North High School students and their parents rushed back inside and police raced to investigate the commotion. But the guns and bullet shells were nowhere to be found. A campus security guard who helped in the search, they鈥檇 soon learn, had already stashed them in his pockets and, later, his wife鈥檚 purse. 

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The weapons turned up that evening outside a gas station a few blocks from the school where the security guard, Kelly Woods, got into a heated altercation with his ex-girlfriend. Police, who observed witnesses screaming 鈥淭hey鈥檝e got a gun,鈥� arrested Woods at gunpoint.

For Woods, the arrest added to a lengthy criminal record, including drug trafficking, auto theft, armed robbery and a federal firearms conviction, which didn鈥檛 stop him from becoming a security guard in charge of protecting students. For police officer Charles Adams III, the security guard鈥檚 colleague at North High, the ordeal became part of his internal disciplinary record. When officials pursued fresh criminal charges against Woods, Adams pressed them to 鈥済o easy鈥� on a man he described as a 鈥済ood guy,鈥� according to police records obtained by 社区黑料. The move infuriated the lead prosecutor on the case. Assistant County Attorney Diane Krenz said it was the first time in her decades-long career an officer had pressured her to go lenient on a suspect, according to the records. The last thing the community needed, she said, were 鈥渕ore guns on the North Side.鈥� 

The incident linked to Adams 鈥� the and now-former cop 鈥� is included among dozens of allegations and disciplinary findings against campus police officers recently stationed inside Minneapolis public schools that include claims of police brutality, racial discrimination and domestic violence. 

In one incident, officers were accused of beating and arresting a man for carrying a handgun despite having a concealed carry permit. In another, police were accused of pounding in a man鈥檚 face because he littered the crust from a slice of pizza. Both incidents ended with court settlements, against Minneapolis officers that has cost taxpayers millions of dollars. The city after a man said at least six officers punched, kicked and tasered him during a traffic stop. One of the accused officers became a school-based cop, a position he held until last year.

After George Floyd was murdered in 2020 at the hands of a Minneapolis officer, the city school board was quick to end its longstanding contract with the police department for campus cops, a move that some critics said was politically motivated. Floyd鈥檚 death put a national spotlight on police brutality and excessive force. 社区黑料 obtained public officer misconduct records and court files to explore whether similar interactions between police and students had transpired in Minneapolis classrooms 鈥� and if such incidents may have contributed to the school board鈥檚 decision to cut ties with the department. Ultimately, few of the records involved on-campus incidents or youth, but the lengthy list of allegations and disciplinary findings 鈥� many alleging violence on the part of police 鈥� raised separate questions about how the officers wound up inside schools in the first place. They also offer new context for an ongoing national debate about the role police should play in schools and whether they鈥檙e best equipped to ensure students are safe. 

Ben Fisher, an assistant criminal justice professor at Florida State University whose research focuses on the efficacy of school-based police, said the Minneapolis officers鈥� disciplinary and court records 鈥渟eemed quite problematic.鈥�

鈥淪chools contain some of our most vulnerable people in society,鈥� Fisher said. 鈥淚f we are putting officers in there who have abused their power in some way outside of the school, it鈥檚 a very scary proposition to imagine that track record following them into schools.鈥�

Minneapolis Police Department spokesman Garrett Parten said officers鈥� disciplinary records were considered before they were stationed inside schools, but he declined to comment on specific allegations or findings against officers. School resource officers took the job to build trust between youth and police, serve as positive role models and ensure children could learn in a safe environment, he said in an email. Effects of the school board鈥檚 decision to end the school resource officer program, he said, 鈥渨ill become evident over time.鈥�

Dozens of school districts across the country severed their ties with police after Floyd鈥檚 murder, but broader police reform efforts have so far faltered. In Washington, legislation that sought to improve transparency around officer misconduct and make it easier to prosecute bad cops, among other changes, failed as bipartisan negotiations broke down. 

Locally, Minneapolis voters will consider a ballot question next week that could remove from the city charter a police department that鈥檚 long been . As the school district navigates its first year without a full-time police presence in classrooms, the ballot measure would create instead a city Department of Public Safety that would use a 鈥渃omprehensive public health approach鈥� and employ police officers only 鈥渋f necessary.鈥�

National industry recommend collaboration between police and education leaders when stationing officers inside schools, but researchers who study the efficacy of school resource officers said that little evidence exists about how such selection processes actually work. Anecdotally, the job is highly regarded in some districts and officers compete for the position, Fisher said. In other places, being stationed in schools is 鈥渁 punishment where police are put there if they can鈥檛 cut it on the streets.鈥�

鈥楥ompletely out of control鈥�

社区黑料 obtained Minneapolis Police Department misconduct records for the 24 officers assigned to public schools for the five years prior to Floyd鈥檚 murder. Of those, 21 officers faced 105 internal complaints, 11 of which resulted in discipline of varying severity. Those records span the duration of officers鈥� employment with the department. Separately, the officers stationed in schools were named in federal lawsuits on at least two dozen occasions, according to an analysis of court records. 

The police disciplinary issues range in seriousness. One officer who worked in the schools was cited in 2019 for unintentionally firing his service rifle while responding to a call about a man with a gun, and another was given a letter of reprimand after getting arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. In two of the 11 cases which resulted in official department action, officers were disciplined for using excessive force. 

About half of the Minneapolis officers who were sued or disciplined remain on the force, according to a department spokesperson. 

Among them is Mukhtar Abdulkadir, who has faced 11 internal complaints 鈥� two that resulted in discipline 鈥� and two federal lawsuits. He reported to work as a school resource officer as recently as 2017, district records show. Records suggest the officer has a tendency to respond violently when under stress. 

In 2010, a young Ethiopian immigrant accused Abdulkadir of choking and punching him and calling him a racial slur after he was pulled over and cited for riding a bike at night without a light, a citation the man called 鈥渟tupid.鈥� A federal lawsuit following the incident . Abdulkadir and his attorneys couldn鈥檛 be reached for comment. 

In 2011, Abdulkadir was arrested on assault and terroristic threat charges after his then-wife accused him of punching her in the ribs, smothering her face with a pillow and hitting her in the face with the butt of his service pistol. Abdulkadir was but was rehired with back pay after his former wife retracted her allegations. Yet according to his disciplinary file, internal investigators believed her decision to recant was obvious: 鈥淥nly if he is reinstated will she obtain child support when they divorce.鈥� Additionally, internal records note that domestic abuse victims often 鈥渢ake the blame鈥� because their abusers maintain control over them. 

Abdulkadir was also accused of repeatedly punching a man outside a car wash in 2013. The man honked at the officer because he was next in line at the automatic car wash but hadn’t moved forward, according to a complaint in a federal lawsuit. In response, Abdulkadir was accused of punching the man repeatedly before charging him with disorderly conduct, according to the lawsuit that also . 

Then, in 2014, Abdulkadir was reprimanded for becoming irate after he failed firearms training. Officers who witnessed the outburst reported feeling afraid because he 鈥渨as completely out of control鈥� and had easy access to a gun. 

鈥淭hat night I truly believed that at any time he could grab his weapon, load it and use it against officers,鈥� a police sergeant told internal investigators. In a less controlled environment, the sergeant said he could see a situation where Abdulkadir would 鈥渃ompletely lose control of everything and harm himself, other officers or the public.鈥� 

District records show Abdulkadir was assigned to Minneapolis campuses a year later, including Andersen United Middle School and Seward Montessori School. 

When officers protect their own

The disciplinary findings against Adams put the storied coach and second-generation Minneapolis cop on defense, a position he isn鈥檛 used to playing. After the school board voted to break with the police department, some students at North High School, the predominantly Black school where Adams worked as a school resource officer, So did the school鈥檚 principal. 

On after reinvigorated the Black Lives Matter movement, The New York Times examined how his roles as a football coach and a Black police officer placed him on both ends of the debate on policing in America. As Adams , 鈥淚 wear blue, but I鈥檓 Black.鈥�

The records suggest that Adams, who left the police department last year and is now head of team security for the Minnesota Twins, was willing to go to great lengths for a colleague accused of a serious crime, a reality he acknowledged in an interview with 社区黑料. Woods, the North High School security guard, and his attorney couldn’t be reached for comment. 

鈥�I stood up for him as a character,鈥� Adams said. 鈥淚 never said that it was OK for what he did.鈥�

North High School Principal Mauri Friestleben, who has been outspoken against the school board鈥檚 decision to cut ties with the police, similarly stood behind Adams. With officers in schools, she said she witnessed a 鈥渉ealthy discourse about what real protecting and serving looked like,鈥� including situations where campus cops helped students avoid arrests. 鈥淚 have no reservations about my public support鈥� of Adams, she wrote in an email, and called the officer 鈥渁 protector鈥� who came to the job 鈥渨ith multiple dimensions and this may be just one of them.鈥� 

Adams sought to downplay his own disciplinary record, arguing that police leaders and prosecutors overreacted to his intervening in Woods鈥檚 criminal case. Prior to becoming a school security guard, Woods was convicted of armed robbery in 1992 and became ineligible to possess a firearm. Six years later, police arrested Woods with a gun outside a Minneapolis Greyhound bus station. Woods, who is Black, unsuccessfully accused the officers of racial discrimination when they stopped him while investigating drug and gun trafficking, according to court records. 

Adams said that Woods was a positive force in the community and shouldn鈥檛 be defined by the years he spent in prison. After the shooting outside North High, Woods wasn鈥檛 trying to keep the guns for himself, Adams maintained. Instead, Woods knew the students involved in the shooting and didn鈥檛 want them to get arrested. Woods recognized them as gang members, according to court documents.

鈥淚 took it as him looking out for those two kids,鈥� said Adams, who added that he didn鈥檛 observe the shooting himself. 鈥淗e took [the guns] from them and said 鈥楪et out of here,鈥� one of those types of deals because that鈥檚 just the type of person that he is.鈥� 

Adams scoffed at the suggestion from Krenz, the prosecutor, that his defense of Woods conflicted with his role in keeping the community safe. Krenz declined to comment for this article. Adams said she wouldn鈥檛 know where North High was if it 鈥渟macked her in her face.鈥� 

鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to hear that,鈥� Adams said. 鈥淚 hear so many people talk about what should be good for our community. They have never stepped one foot inside of it.鈥� 

鈥楪ood ol鈥� boy network鈥�

Internal police records obtained by 社区黑料 likely offer a significant undercount of officer misconduct. Just 2.7 percent of complaints resulted in discipline between 2013 and 2019, according to a nonprofit news outlet. After lengthy investigations, disciplined officers often received letters of reprimand or brief suspensions. 

A pattern of officers protecting their peers allowed abuses to remain under the radar until it went to court, the investigation found. Three years before he murdered Floyd, for example, Derek Chauvin and pinned him to the ground for 17 minutes. The incident, which could be seen as a precursor to Chauvin kneeling on Floyd鈥檚 neck, from his public records. 

社区黑料 sought comments from Minneapolis officers previously stationed inside schools, school board members, the city and state police unions, an attorney who represents many officers in misconduct litigation, the city and the county attorney鈥檚 office. Each declined to comment or didn鈥檛 respond to interview requests. 

Among the lawsuits against officers placed in schools, civil rights attorney Zorislav Leyderman represented the plaintiffs in six. Police misconduct incidents that occur outside schools, he said, should influence whether those involved are assigned as school resource officers. Leyderman cited the allegations as contributing to a larger culture in the city where many Minneapolis residents fear the police. 

鈥淭hey don鈥檛 want to interact with law enforcement because they鈥檙e worried that if they do, they鈥檙e going to get injured,鈥� he said. The allegations against the officers stationed in schools 鈥渟hould have been looked into, both the lawsuits and these internal complaints.鈥� 

Oftentimes, he said police misconduct remains outside the public eye because officers are 鈥渃oached鈥� following incidents, a practice the department has maintained isn鈥檛 a form of official discipline. The department was sued and , including in cases of serious wrongdoing. In , investigators found that Minneapolis police used coaching to resolve more than a quarter of complaints over a six-year period.

Local parent advocate Khulia Pringle, who helped the school district hire security staff to replace sworn police last year, said that officers鈥� disciplinary records should be a major factor when placing them inside schools. However, that history only reinforced her belief that police have no place walking hallways. 

鈥淚n any other situation, when we need the cops, we call them,鈥� said Pringle, a Minnesota-based representative of the . If they鈥檙e going to be there, there 鈥渟hould have been more protocols in place as to which officers are in schools,鈥� she said. 

Adams said he was surprised to see the allegations against other police officers who worked in the schools, and although negative interactions between cops and youth have occurred, he couldn鈥檛 recall any recent instances that could鈥檝e motivated the school board鈥檚 decision to end its police contract. Yet Adams, who said he can 鈥渟peak freely鈥� now because he鈥檚 no longer a cop, portrayed his former department as one where officer misconduct is routine. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 the good ol鈥� boy network,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got guys who are in the police department that treat people wrong on purpose and you can see it.鈥� 

鈥楶art of the game鈥�

As communities across the country grapple with the role police play in schools, new research serves to highlight the issue鈥檚 complexities. On one hand, the officers reduce some forms of violent crimes like fights, according to the research. At the same time, their presence prompts a dramatic uptick in suspensions and arrests 鈥� especially for students who are Black. Little academic research explores the types of officers who are more effective than others in schools.

But being named in a federal lawsuit shouldn鈥檛 be automatically disqualifying, said school safety consultant Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services in Cleveland. Filing civil rights lawsuits against an arresting officer is all 鈥減art of the game,鈥� he said. Police misconduct suits often end in settlements, yet Trump said the final results should become part of the equation when making school resource officer assignments.

鈥淚f you鈥檙e a police officer and you鈥檙e doing your job on the streets, there鈥檚 a really good chance you鈥檙e going to get sued somewhere in your career,鈥� said Trump, a proponent of school-based policing. 鈥淏ut there should be some sort of baseline criteria and screening set by your police administration before that pool of officers is ever presented at that next step to your school people.鈥�

Parten, the Minneapolis police spokesman, said that all officers were eligible to apply for the school resource officer program and were interviewed by a panel of police department and school district officials. The police chief had the final say in hiring decisions. Parten said he collaborated with education officials when crafting a statement for this article, but Minneapolis school district spokeswoman Julie Schultz Brown didn鈥檛 respond to multiple requests for comment. 

鈥淐andidates were presented with scenario-based questions designed to evaluate critical thinking skills necessary for a school setting and further examined each individual鈥檚 understanding of the challenges and rewards associated with the position,鈥� he said. 

Policing in Minneapolis remains contentious in the larger community, and voters will soon decide whether to go in a completely new direction. Ahead of next week鈥檚 election, suggests the question of whether to dismantle the traditional police department will be close. Black voters were less likely than white voters to support the idea. 

A similar course change 鈥� to remove cops from Minneapolis schools and replace them with district security staff 鈥� was ultimately detrimental, Adams maintains. 鈥淐rime is outrageous鈥� at North High School, he said, and the security team hired to replace sworn officers is 鈥渟tretched thin.鈥� 

And even though he defended a security guard who he said sought to keep kids out of the criminal justice system, the former cop said stationing police in schools was an effective strategy to catch suspected criminals.

鈥淎 lot of kids would obviously show up to school and investigators and a lot of police knew the kid would be there,鈥� Adams said. 鈥淭hat was a good way to get bad guys.鈥� 

Lead Image: Former police officer Charles Adams III’s actions to intervene on behalf of a school security guard arrested on gun charges are among dozens of disciplinary findings and misconduct allegations involving campus police officers recently stationed inside Minneapolis public schools. (Andrea Ellen Reed / The New York Times / Redux)

For the 13-year-old from Minneapolis who lives close to where George Floyd was murdered in May 2020, the pandemic-induced isolation and social unrest amplifed his transgender dysphoria, emotional distress that occurs when someone鈥檚 gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth. His billowing depression landed him in the hospital after an attempt to die by suicide. During that dark stretch, he spent his days in an outpatient psychiatric facility, where therapists embraced music therapy. There, he listened to a punk song on loop that promised how  

Eventually they did. 

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Logsdon-Wallace, a transgender eighth-grader who chose the name Teeth, has since 鈥済raduated鈥� from weekly therapy sessions and has found a better headspace, but that didn鈥檛 stop school officials from springing into action after he wrote about his mental health. In a school assignment last month, he reflected on his suicide attempt and how the punk rock anthem by the band Ramshackle Glory helped him cope 鈥� intimate details that wound up in the hands of district security. 

The classroom assignment was one of thousands of Minneapolis student communications that got flagged by Gaggle, a digital surveillance company that saw rapid growth after the pandemic forced schools into remote learning. In an earlier investigation, 社区黑料 analyzed nearly 1,300 public records from Minneapolis Public Schools to expose how Gaggle subjects students to relentless digital surveillance 24 hours a day, seven days a week, raising significant privacy concerns for more than 5 million young people across the country who are monitored by the company鈥檚 digital algorithm and human content moderators. 

But technology experts and families with first-hand experience with Gaggle鈥檚 surveillance dragnet have raised a separate issue: The service is not only invasive, it may also be ineffective. 

While the system flagged Logsdon-Wallace for referencing the word 鈥渟uicide,鈥� context was never part of the equation, he said. Two days later, in mid-September, a school counselor called his mom to let her know what officials had learned. The meaning of the classroom assignment 鈥� that his mental health had improved 鈥� was seemingly lost in the transaction between Gaggle and the school district. He felt betrayed. 

 鈥淚 was trying to be vulnerable with this teacher and be like, 鈥楬ey, here鈥檚 a thing that鈥檚 important to me because you asked,鈥� Logsdon-Wallace said. 鈥淣ow, when I鈥檝e made it clear that I鈥檓 a lot better, the school is contacting my counselor and is freaking out.鈥�

Jeff Patterson, Gaggle鈥檚 founder and CEO, said in a statement his company does not 鈥渕ake a judgement on that level of the context,鈥� and while some districts have requested to be notified about references to previous suicide attempts, it鈥檚 ultimately up to administrators to 鈥渄ecide the proper response, if any.鈥�  

鈥楢 crisis on our hands鈥�

Minneapolis Public Schools first contracted with Gaggle in the spring of 2020 as the pandemic forced students nationwide into remote learning. Through AI and the content moderator team, Gaggle tracks students鈥� online behavior everyday by analyzing materials on their school-issued Google and Microsoft accounts. The tool scans students鈥� emails, chat messages and other documents, including class assignments and personal files, in search of keywords, images or videos that could indicate self-harm, violence or sexual behavior. The remote moderators evaluate flagged materials and notify school officials about content they find troubling. 

In Minneapolis, Gaggle flagged students for keywords related to pornography, suicide and violence, according to six months of incident reports obtained by 社区黑料 through a public records request. The private company also captured their journal entries, fictional stories and classroom assignments. 

Gaggle executives maintain that the system saves lives, including those of during the 2020-21 school year. Those figures have not been independently verified. Minneapolis school officials make similar assertions. Though the pandemic鈥檚 effects on suicide rates remains fuzzy, suicide has been a leading cause of death among teenagers for years. Patterson, who has watched his business during COVID-19, said Gaggle could be part of the solution. Though not part of its contract with Minneapolis schools, the company recently launched a service that connects students flagged by the monitoring tool with teletherapists. 

鈥淏efore the pandemic, we had a crisis on our hands,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 believe there鈥檚 a tsunami of youth suicide headed our way that we are not prepared for.鈥� 

Schools nationwide have increasingly relied on technological tools that purport to keep kids safe, yet there鈥檚 to back up their claims.

Like many parents, Logsdon-Wallace鈥檚 mother Alexis Logsdon didn鈥檛 know Gaggle existed until she got the call from his school counselor. Luckily, the counselor recognized that Logsdon-Wallace was discussing events from the past and offered a measured response. His mother was still left baffled. 

鈥淭hat was an example of somebody describing really good coping mechanisms, you know, 鈥業 have music that is one of my soothing activities that helps me through a really hard mental health time,鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淏ut that doesn鈥檛 matter because, obviously, this software is not that smart 鈥� it鈥檚 just like 鈥榃oop, we saw the word.鈥欌�� 

鈥楻andom and capricious鈥�

Many students have accepted digital surveillance as an inevitable reality at school, according to a new survey by the Center for Democracy and Technology  in Washington, D.C. But some youth are fighting back, including Lucy Dockter, a 16-year-old junior from Westport, Connecticut. On multiple occasions over the last several years, Gaggle has flagged her communications 鈥� an experience she described as 鈥渞eally scary.鈥�

鈥淚f it works, it could be extremely beneficial. But if it鈥檚 random, it鈥檚 completely useless.鈥�
鈥�Lucy Dockter, 16, Westport, Connecticut student mistakenly flagged by Gaggle

On one occasion, Gaggle sent her an email notification of 鈥淚nappropriate Use鈥� while she was walking to her first high school biology midterm and her heart began to race as she worried what she had done wrong. Dockter is an editor of her high school鈥檚 literary journal and, according to her, Gaggle had ultimately flagged profanity in students鈥� fictional article submissions. 

鈥淭he link at the bottom of this email is for something that was identified as inappropriate,鈥� Gaggle warned in its email while pointing to one of the fictional articles. 鈥淧lease refrain from storing or sharing inappropriate content in your files.鈥� 

But Gaggle doesn鈥檛 catch everything. Even as she got flagged when students shared documents with her, the articles鈥� authors weren鈥檛 receiving similar alerts, she said. And neither did Gaggle鈥檚 AI pick up when she wrote about the discrepancy in where she included a four-letter swear word to make a point. In the article, which Dockter wrote with Google Docs, she argued that Gaggle鈥檚 monitoring system is 鈥渞andom and capricious,鈥� and could be dangerous if school officials rely on its findings to protect students. 

Her experiences left the Connecticut teen questioning whether such tracking is even helpful. 

鈥淲ith such a seemingly random service, that doesn鈥檛 seem to 鈥� in the end 鈥� have an impact on improving student health or actually taking action to prevent suicide and threats鈥� she said in an interview. 鈥淚f it works, it could be extremely beneficial. But if it鈥檚 random, it鈥檚 completely useless.鈥�

Some schools have asked Gaggle to email students about the use of profanity, but Patterson said the system has an error that he blamed on the tech giant Google, which at times 鈥渄oes not properly indicate the author of a document and assigns a random collaborator.鈥�

鈥淲e are hoping Google will improve this functionality so we can better protect students,鈥� Patterson said. 

Back in Minneapolis, attorney Cate Long said she became upset when she learned that Gaggle was monitoring her daughter on her personal laptop, which 10-year-old Emmeleia used for remote learning. She grew angrier when she learned the district didn鈥檛 notify her that Gaggle had identified a threat. 

This spring, a classmate used Google Hangouts, the chat feature, to send Emmeleia a death threat, warning she鈥檇 shoot her 鈥減uny little brain with my grandpa鈥檚 rifle.鈥�

When Long learned about the chat, she notified her daughter鈥檚 teacher but was never informed about whether Gaggle had picked up on the disturbing message as well. Missing warning signs could be detrimental to both students and school leaders; districts if they fail to act on credible threats.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 hear a word from Gaggle about it,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f I hadn鈥檛 brought it to the teacher鈥檚 attention, I don鈥檛 think that anything would have been done.鈥� 

The incident, which occurred in April, fell outside the six-month period for which 社区黑料 obtained records. A Gaggle spokesperson said the company picked up on the threat and notified district officials an hour and a half later but it 鈥渄oes not have any insight into the steps the district took to address this particular matter.鈥� 

Julie Schultz Brown, the Minneapolis district spokeswoman, said that officials 鈥渨ould never discuss with a community member any communication flagged by Gaggle.鈥� 

鈥淭hat unrelated but concerned parent would not have been provided that information nor should she have been,鈥� she wrote in an email. 鈥淭hat is private.鈥� 

鈥楾he big scary algorithm鈥�

When identifying potential trouble, Gaggle鈥檚 algorithm relies on keyword matching that compares student communications against a dictionary of thousands of words the company believes could indicate potential issues. The company scans student emails before they鈥檙e delivered to their intended recipients, said Patterson, the CEO. Files within Google Drive, including Docs and Sheets, are scanned as students write in them, he said. In one instance, the technology led to the arrest of a 35-year-old Michigan man who tried to send pornography to an 11-year-old girl in New York, . Gaggle prevented the file from ever reaching its intended recipient.  

Though the company allows school districts to alter the keyword dictionary to reflect local contexts, less than 5 percent of districts customize the filter, Patterson said. 

That鈥檚 where potential problems could begin, said Sara Jordan, an expert on artificial intelligence and senior researcher at the in Washington. For example, language that students use to express suicidal ideation could vary between Manhattan and rural Appalachia, she said.

鈥淲e鈥檙e using the big scary algorithm term here when I don鈥檛 think it applies,鈥� This is not Netflix鈥檚 recommendation engine. This is not Spotify.鈥�
鈥�Sara Jordan, AI expert and senior researcher, Future of Privacy Forum

On the other hand, she noted that false-positives are highly likely, especially when the system flags common swear words and fails to understand context. 

鈥淵ou鈥檙e going to get 25,000 emails saying that a student dropped an F-bomb in a chat,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 the utility of that? That seems pretty low.鈥� 

She said that Gaggle鈥檚 utility could be impaired because it doesn鈥檛 adjust to students鈥� behaviors over time, comparing it to Netflix, which recommends television shows based on users鈥� ever-evolving viewing patterns. 鈥淪omething that doesn鈥檛 learn isn鈥檛 going to be accurate,鈥� she said. For example, she said the program could be more useful if it learned to ignore the profane but harmless literary journal entries submitted to Dockter, the Connecticut student. Gaggle鈥檚 marketing materials appear to overhype the tool鈥檚 sophistication to schools, she said. 

鈥淲e鈥檙e using the big scary algorithm term here when I don鈥檛 think it applies,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his is not Netflix鈥檚 recommendation engine. This is not Spotify. This is not American Airlines serving you specific forms of flights based on your previous searches and your location.鈥� 

鈥淎rtificial intelligence without human intelligence ain鈥檛 that smart.鈥�
鈥�Jeff Patterson, Gaggle founder and CEO

Patterson said Gaggle鈥檚 proprietary algorithm is updated regularly 鈥渢o adjust to student behaviors over time and improve accuracy and speed.鈥� The tool monitors 鈥渢housands of keywords, including misspellings, slang words, evolving trends and terminologies, all informed by insights gleaned over two decades of doing this work.鈥� 

Ultimately, the algorithm to identify keywords is used to 鈥渘arrow down the haystack as much as possible,鈥� Patterson said, and Gaggle content moderators review materials to gauge their risk levels. 

鈥淎rtificial intelligence without human intelligence ain鈥檛 that smart,鈥� he said. 

In Minneapolis, officials denied that Gaggle infringes on students鈥� privacy and noted that the tool only operates within school-issued accounts. The district鈥檚 internet use policy states that students should 鈥渆xpect only limited privacy,鈥� and that the misuse of school equipment could result in discipline and 鈥渃ivil or criminal liability.鈥� District leaders have also cited compliance with the Clinton-era which became law in 2000 and requires schools to monitor 鈥渢he online activities of minors.鈥� 

Patterson suggested that teachers aren鈥檛 paying close enough attention to keep students safe on their own and 鈥渟ometimes they forget that they鈥檙e mandated reporters.鈥� On the , Patterson says he launched the company in 1999 to provide teachers with 鈥渁n easy way to watch over their gaggle of students.鈥� Legally, teachers are mandated to report suspected abuse and neglect, but Patterson broadens their sphere of responsibility and his company鈥檚 role in meeting it. As technology becomes a key facet of American education, Patterson said that schools 鈥渉ave a moral obligation to protect the kids on their digital playground.鈥� 

But Elizabeth Laird, the director of equity in civic technology at the Center for Democracy and Technology, argued the federal law was never intended to mandate student 鈥渢racking鈥� through artificial intelligence. In fact, the statute includes a disclaimer stating it shouldn鈥檛 be 鈥渃onstrued to require the tracking of internet use by any identifiable minor or adult user.鈥� In , her group urged the government to clarify the Children鈥檚 Internet Protection Act鈥檚 requirements and distinguish monitoring from tracking individual student behaviors. 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, agrees. In recent letters to Gaggle and other education technology companies, Warren and other Democratic lawmakers said they鈥檙e concerned the tools 鈥渕ay extend beyond鈥� the law鈥檚 intent 鈥渢o surveil student activity or reinforce biases.鈥� Around-the-clock surveillance, they wrote, demonstrates 鈥渁 clear invasion of student privacy, particularly when students and families are unable to opt out.鈥� 

鈥淓scalations and mischaracterizations of crises may have long-lasting and harmful effects on students鈥� mental health due to stigmatization and differential treatment following even a false report,鈥� the senators wrote. 鈥淔lagging students as 鈥榟igh-risk鈥� may put them at risk of biased treatment from physicians and educators in the future. In other extreme cases, these tools can become analogous to predictive policing, which are notoriously biased against communities of color.鈥�

A new kind of policing

Shortly after the school district piloted Gaggle for distance learning, education leaders were met with an awkward dilemma. Floyd鈥檚 murder at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer prompted Minneapolis Public Schools to sever its ties with the police department for school-based officers and replace them with district security officers who lack the authority to make arrests. Gaggle flags district security when it identifies student communications the company believes could be harmful. 

Some critics have compared the surveillance tool to a new form of policing that, beyond broad efficacy concerns, could have a disparate impact on students of color, similar to traditional policing. to suffer biases. 

Matt Shaver, who taught at a Minneapolis elementary school during the pandemic but no longer works for the district, said he was concerned that could be baked into Gaggle鈥檚 algorithm. Absent adequate context or nuance,  he worried the tool could lead to misunderstandings. 

Data obtained by 社区黑料 offer a limited window into Gaggle鈥檚 potential effects on different student populations. Though the district withheld many details in the nearly 1,300 incident reports, just over 100 identified the campuses where the involved students attended school. An analysis of those reports failed to identify racial discrepancies. Specifically, Gaggle was about as likely to issue incident reports in schools where children of color were the majority as it was at campuses where most children were white. It remains possible that students of color in predominantly white schools may have been disproportionately flagged by Gaggle or faced disproportionate punishment once identified. Broadly speaking, Black students are far more likely to be suspended or arrested at school than their white classmates, according to federal education data. 

Gaggle and Minneapolis district leaders acknowledged that students鈥� digital communications are forwarded to police in rare circumstances. The Minneapolis district鈥檚 internet use policy explains that educators could contact the police if students use technology to break the law and a document given to teachers about the district鈥檚 Gaggle contract further highlights the possibility of law enforcement involvement. 

Jason Matlock, the Minneapolis district鈥檚 director of emergency management, safety and security, said that law enforcement is not a 鈥渞egular partner,鈥� when responding to incidents flagged by Gaggle. It doesn鈥檛 deploy Gaggle to get kids into trouble, he said, but to get them help. He said the district has interacted with law enforcement about student materials flagged by Gaggle on several occasions, but only in cases related to child pornography. Such cases, he said, often involve students sharing explicit photographs of themselves. During a six-month period from March to September 2020, Gaggle flagged Minneapolis students more than 120 times for incidents related to child pornography, according to records obtained by 社区黑料.

鈥淓ven if a kid has put out an image of themselves, no one is trying to track them down to charge them or to do anything negative to them,鈥� Matlock said, though it鈥檚 unclear if any students have faced legal consequences. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the question as to why they鈥檙e doing it,鈥� and to raise the issue with their parents.

Gaggle鈥檚 keywords could also have a disproportionate impact on LGBTQ children. In three-dozen incident reports, Gaggle flagged keywords related to sexual orientation including 鈥済ay, and 鈥渓esbian.鈥� On at least one occasion, school officials outed an LGBTQ student to their parents, according to . 

Logsdon-Wallace, the 13-year-old student, called the incident 鈥渄isgusting and horribly messed up.鈥� 

鈥淭hey have gay flagged to stop people from looking at porn, but one, that is going to be mostly targeting people who are looking for gay porn and two, it鈥檚 going to be false-positive because they are acting as if the word gay is inherently sexual,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hen people are just talking about being gay, anything they鈥檙e writing would be flagged.鈥� 

The service could also have a heavier presence in the lives of low-income families, he added, who may end up being more surveilled than their affluent peers. Logsdon-Wallace said he knows students who rely on school devices for personal uses because they lack technology of their own. Among the 1,300 Minneapolis incidents contained in 社区黑料鈥檚 data, only about a quarter were reported to district officials on school days between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 definitely really messed up, especially when the school is like 鈥極h no, no, no, please keep these Chromebooks over the summer,鈥欌�� an invitation that gave students 鈥渢he go-ahead to use them鈥� for personal reasons, he said.

鈥淓specially when it鈥檚 during a pandemic when you can鈥檛 really go anywhere and the only way to talk to your friends is through the internet.鈥�

In each instance, the emails warning Jason Matlock of 鈥淨UESTIONABLE CONTENT鈥� pointed to a single culprit: Kids were watching cartoon porn.

Over the next six months, Matlock got nearly 1,300 similar emails from Gaggle, a surveillance company that monitors students’ school-issued Google and Microsoft accounts. Through artificial intelligence and a team of content moderators, Gaggle tracks the online behaviors of millions of students across the U.S. every day. The sheer volume of reports was overwhelming at first, Matlock acknowledged, and many incidents were utterly harmless. About 100 were related to animated pornography and, on one occasion, a member of Gaggle鈥檚 remote surveillance team flagged a fictional story that referenced 鈥渦nderwear.鈥�

Hundreds of others, however, suggested imminent danger.

In emails and chat messages, students discussed violent impulses, eating disorders, abuse at home, bouts of depression and, as one student put it, 鈥渆nding my life.鈥� At a moment of heightened social isolation and elevated concern over students鈥� mental health, references to self-harm stood out, accounting for nearly a third of incident reports over a six-month period. In a document titled 鈥淢y Educational Autobiography,鈥� students at Roosevelt High School on the south side of Minneapolis discussed bullying, drug overdoses and suicide. 鈥淜ill me,鈥� one student wrote in a document titled 鈥済oodbye.鈥�

Nearly a year after 社区黑料 submitted public records requests to understand the Minneapolis district鈥檚 use of Gaggle during the pandemic, a trove of documents offer an unprecedented look into how one school system deploys a controversial security tool that grew rapidly during COVID-19, but carries significant civil rights and privacy implications.

The data, gleaned from those 1,300 incident reports in the first six months of the crisis, highlight how Gaggle鈥檚 team of content moderators subject children to relentless digital surveillance long after classes end for the day, including on weekends, holidays, late at night and over the summer. In fact, only about a quarter of incidents were reported to district officials on school days between 8 a.m and 4 p.m., bringing into sharp relief how the service extends schools鈥� authority far beyond their traditional powers to regulate student speech and behavior, including at home.

Now, as COVID-era restrictions subside and Minneapolis students return to in-person learning this fall, a tool that was pitched as a remote learning necessity isn鈥檛 going away anytime soon. Minneapolis officials reacted swiftly when the pandemic engulfed the nation and forced students to learn from the confines of their bedrooms, paying more than $355,000 鈥� including nearly $64,000 in federal emergency relief money 鈥� to partner with Gaggle until 2023. Faced with a public health emergency, the district circumvented normal procurement rules, a reality that prevented concerned parents from raising objections until after it was too late.

A mental health dilemma

With each alert, Matlock and other district officials were given a vivid look into students鈥� most intimate thoughts and online behaviors, raising significant privacy concerns. It鈥檚 unclear, however, if any of them made kids safer. Independent research on the efficacy of Gaggle and similar services .

When students鈥� mental health comes into play, a complicated equation emerges. In recent years, schools have ramped up efforts to identify and provide interventions to children at risk of harming themselves or others. Gaggle executives see their tool as a key to identify youth who are lamenting over hardships or discussing violent plans. On average, Gaggle notifies school officials within 17 minutes after zeroing in on student content related to suicide and self-harm, according to the company, and officials claim they saved more than 1,400 lives during the 2020-21 school year.

鈥淎s a parent you have no idea what鈥檚 going on in your kid鈥檚 head, but if you don鈥檛 know you can鈥檛 help them,鈥� said Jeff Patterson, Gaggle鈥檚 founder and CEO. 鈥淎nd I would always want to err on trying to identify kids who need help.鈥�

Critics, however, have questioned Gaggle鈥檚 effectiveness and worry that rummaging through students personal files and conversations 鈥� and in some cases outing students for exhibiting signs of mental health issues including depression 鈥� could backfire.

Using surveillance to identify children in distress could exacerbate feelings of stigma and shame and could ultimately make students less likely to ask for help, said Jennifer Mathis, the director of policy and legal advocacy at in Washington, D.C.

鈥淢ost kids in that situation are not going to share anything anymore and are going to suffer for that,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t suggests that anything you write or say or do in school 鈥� or out of school 鈥� may be found and held against you and used in ways that you had not envisioned.鈥�

Minneapolis parent Holly Kragthorpe-Shirley had a similar concern and questioned whether kids 鈥渁ctually have a safe space to raise some of their issues in a safe way鈥� if they鈥檙e stifled by surveillance.

In Minneapolis, for instance, Gaggle flagged the keywords 鈥渇eel depressed鈥� in a document titled 鈥淪EL Journal,鈥� a reference to social-emotional learning. In another instance, Gaggle flagged 鈥渟uicidal鈥� in a document titled 鈥渕ental health problems workbook.鈥�

District officials acknowledged that Gaggle had captured student assignments and other personal files, an issue that civil rights groups have long been warning about. The documents obtained by 社区黑料 put hard evidence behind those concerns, said Amelia Vance, the director of at The Future of Privacy Forum, a Washington-based think tank.

鈥淭he hypotheticals we鈥檝e been talking about for a few years have come to fruition,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t is highly likely to undercut the trust of students not only in their school generally but in their teacher, in their counselor 鈥� in the mental health problems workbook.鈥� 

Patterson shook off any privacy reservations, including those related to monitoring sensitive materials like journal entries, which he characterized as 鈥渃ries for help.鈥�

鈥淪ometimes when we intervene we might cause some challenges, but more often than not the kids want to be helped,鈥� he said. Though Gaggle only monitors student files tied to school accounts, he cited a middle school girl鈥檚 private journal in a success story. He said the girl wrote in a digital journal that she suffered with self esteem issues and guilt after getting raped.

鈥淣o one in her life knew about this incident and because she journaled about it,鈥� Gaggle was able to notify school officials about what they鈥檇 learned, he said. 鈥淭hey were able to intervene and get this girl help for things that she couldn鈥檛 have dealt with on her own.鈥�

鈥楴eedles in haystacks鈥�

Tools like Gaggle have become ubiquitous in classrooms across the country, according to forthcoming research by the D.C.-based In a recent survey, 81 percent of teachers reported having such software in place in their schools. Though most students said they鈥檙e comfortable being monitored, 58 percent said they don鈥檛 share their 鈥渢rue thoughts or ideas鈥� as a result and 80 percent said they鈥檙e more careful about what they search online.

Such data suggest that youth are being primed to accept surveillance as an inevitable reality, said Elizabeth Laird, the center鈥檚 director of equity in civic technology. In return, she said, they鈥檙e giving up the ability to explore new ideas and learn from mistakes.

Gaggle, in business since 1999 and recently relocated to Dallas, monitors the digital files of more than 5 million students across the country each year with the pandemic being very good for its bottom line. Since the onset of the crisis, the number of students surveilled by the privately held company, which does not report its yearly revenue, has . Through artificial intelligence, Gaggle scans students鈥� emails, chat messages and other materials uploaded to students鈥� Google or Microsoft accounts in search of keywords, images or videos that could indicate self-harm, violence or sexual behavior. Moderators evaluate flagged material and notify school officials about content they find troubling 鈥� a bar that Matlock acknowledged is quite low as 鈥渢he system is always going to err on the side of caution鈥� and requires district administrators to evaluate materials鈥� context.

鈥淲e鈥檙e looking for needles in haystacks to basically save kids.鈥�
鈥擩eff Patterson, founder and CEO of Gaggle, which analyzed more than 10 billion online student communications in the 2020-21 school year.

In Minneapolis, Gaggle officials discovered a majority of offenses in files within students鈥� Google Drive, including in word documents and spreadsheets. More than half of incidents originated on the Drive. Meanwhile, 22 percent originated in emails and 23 percent came from Google Hangouts, the chat feature.

School officials are alerted to only a tiny fraction of student communications caught up in Gaggle鈥檚 dragnet. Last school year, Gaggle collected more than 10 billion items nationally but just 360,000 incidents resulted in notifications to district officials, according to the company. Nationally, 41 percent of incidents during the 2020-21 school year related to suicide and self-harm, according to Gaggle, and a quarter centered on violence.

鈥淲e are looking for needles in haystacks to basically save kids,鈥� Patterson said.

鈥楢 really slippery slope鈥�

It was Google Hangouts that had Matt Shaver on edge. When the pandemic hit, classrooms were replaced by video conferences and casual student interactions in hallways and cafeterias were relegated to Hangouts. For Shaver, who taught at a Minneapolis elementary school during the pandemic, students鈥� Hangouts use became overwhelming.

Students were so busy chatting with each other, he said, that many had lost focus on classroom instruction. So he proposed a blunt solution to district technology officials: Shut it down.

鈥淭he thing I wanted was 鈥楾ake the temptation away, take the opportunity away for them to use that,鈥欌�� said Shaver, who has since left teaching and is now policy director at the education reform group EdAllies. 鈥淎nd I actually got pushback from IT saying 鈥楴o we鈥檙e not going to do that, this is a good social aspect that we鈥檙e trying to replicate.鈥欌��

But unlike those hallway interactions, nobody was watching. Matlock, the district鈥檚 security head, said he was initially in the market for a new anonymous reporting tool, which allows students to flag their friends for behaviors they find troubling. He turned to Gaggle, which operates the anonymous reporting system SpeakUp for Safety, and saw the company鈥檚 AI-powered digital surveillance tool, which goes well beyond SpeakUp鈥檚 powers to ferret out potentially alarming student behavior, as a possibility to 鈥渆nhance the supports for students online.鈥�

鈥淲e wanted to get something in place quickly, as we were moving quickly with the lockdown,鈥� he said, adding that going through traditional procurement hoops could take months. 鈥淕aggle had a strong national presence and a reputation.鈥�

The district signed an initial six-month, $99,603 contract with Gaggle just a week after the virus shuttered schools in Minneapolis. Board of Education Chair Kim Ellison signed a second, three-year contract at an annual rate of $255,750 in September 2020.

The move came with steep consequences. Though SpeakUP was used just three times during the six-month window included in 社区黑料鈥檚 data, Gaggle鈥檚 surveillance tool flagged students nearly 1,300 times.

During that time, which coincided with the switch to remote learning, the largest share of incidents 鈥� 38 percent 鈥� were pornographic or sexual in nature, including references to 鈥渟exual activity involving a student,鈥� professional videos and explicit, student-produced selfies which trigger alerts to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

鈥淚鈥檓 trying to imagine finding out about this as a high schooler, that every single word I鈥檝e written on a Google Hangout or whatever is being monitored 鈥� we live in a country with laws around unreasonable search and seizure 鈥� and surveillance is just a really slippery slope.鈥�
鈥擬att Shaver, former Minneapolis Public Schools teacher

An additional 30 percent were related to suicide and self-harm, including incidents that were triggered by keywords including 鈥渃utting,鈥� 鈥渇eeling depressed,鈥� 鈥渨ant to die,鈥� and 鈥渆nd it all.鈥� an additional 18 percent were related to violence, including threats, physical altercations, references to weapons and suspected child abuse. Such incidents were triggered by keywords including 鈥淏omb,鈥� 鈥淕lock,鈥� 鈥済oing to fight,鈥� and 鈥渂eat her.鈥� About a fifth of incidents were triggered by profanity.

Concerns over Gaggle鈥檚 reach during the pandemic weren鈥檛 limited to Minneapolis. In December 2020, a group of civil rights organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California that by using Gaggle, the Fresno Unified School District had violated the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which requires officials to obtain search warrants before accessing electronic information. Such monitoring, the groups contend, infringe on students鈥� free-speech and privacy rights with little ability to opt out.

Shaver, whose students used Google Hangouts to the point of it becoming a distraction, was alarmed to learn that those communications were being analyzed by artificial intelligence and poured over by a remote team of people he didn鈥檛 even know.

鈥淚鈥檓 trying to imagine finding out about this as a high schooler, that every single word I鈥檝e written on a Google Hangout or whatever is being monitored,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here is, of course, some lesson in this, obviously like, 鈥楤e careful of what you put online.鈥� But we live in a country with laws around unreasonable search and seizure 鈥� and surveillance is just a really slippery slope.”

The potential to save lives

To Matlock, Gaggle is a lifesaver 鈥� literally. When the tool flagged a Minneapolis student鈥檚 suicide note in the middle of the night, Matlock said he rushed to intervene. In a late-night phone call, the security chief said he warned the unnamed parents, who knew their child was struggling but didn鈥檛 fully recognize how bad things had become. Because of Gaggle, school officials were able to get the student help. To Matlock, the possibility that he saved a student鈥檚 life offers a feeling he 鈥渃an鈥檛 even measure in words.鈥�

鈥淚f it saved one kid, if it supported one caregiver, if it supported one family, I鈥檒l take it,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the bottom line.鈥�

Despite heightened concern over youth mental health issues during the pandemic, its effect on youth suicide rates remains fuzzy. Preliminary data from the Minnesota health department show . Between 2019 and 2020, suicides among people 24 years old and younger decreased by more than 20 percent statewide. Nationally, the has surged during the pandemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but for people of all ages show a 5.6 percent decline in self-inflicted fatalities in 2020 compared to 2019.

Meanwhile, Gaggle reported that it identified a significant increase of threats related to suicide, self-harm and violence nationwide between March 2020 and March 2021. During that period, Gaggle observed a 31 percent increase in flagged content overall, including a 35 percent increase in materials related to suicide and self-harm. Gaggle officials said the data highlight a mental health crisis among youth during the pandemic. But other factors could be at play. Among them is , creating additional opportunities for Gaggle to tag youth behavior. Meanwhile, the number of students monitored by Gaggle nationally grew markedly during the pandemic.

But that hasn鈥檛 stopped Gaggle from as it markets a new service: Gaggle Therapy. In school districts that sign up for the service, students who are flagged by Gaggle鈥檚 digital monitoring tool are matched with counselors for weekly teletherapy sessions. Therapists available through the service are independent contractors for Gaggle and districts can either pay Gaggle for 鈥渂lanket coverage,鈥� which makes all students eligible, or a 鈥渞etainer鈥� fee, which allows them to 鈥渦se the service as you need it,鈥� . Under the second scenario, Gaggle would have a financial incentive to identify more students in need of teletherapy.

In Minneapolis, Matlock said that school-based social workers and counselors lead intervention efforts when students are identified for materials related to self-harm. 鈥淭he initial moment may be a shock鈥� when students are confronted by school staff about their online behaviors, he said, but providing them with help 鈥渋s much better in the long run.鈥�

As the district rolled out the service, many parents and students were out of the loop. Among them was Nathaniel Genene, a recent graduate who served as the Minneapolis school board鈥檚 student representative at the time. He said that classmates contacted him after initial news of the Gaggle contract was released.

鈥淚 had a couple of friends texting me like 鈥楴athaniel, is this true?鈥欌�� he said. 鈥淚t was kind of interesting because I had no idea it was even a thing.鈥�

Yet as students gained a greater awareness that their communications were being monitored, Matlock said they began to test Gaggle鈥檚 parameters using potential keywords 鈥渁nd then say 鈥楬i鈥� to us while they put it in there.鈥�

As students became conditioned to Gaggle, 鈥渢he shock is probably a little bit less,鈥� said Rochelle Cox, an associate superintendent at the Minneapolis school district. Now, she said students have an outlet to get help without having to explicitly ask. Instead, they can express their concerns online with an understanding that school officials are listening. As a result, school-based mental health professionals are able to provide the care students need, she said.

Mathis, with The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, called that argument 鈥渞idiculous.鈥� Officials should make sure that students know about available mental health services and ensure that they feel comfortable reaching out for help, she said.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 very different than deciding that we鈥檙e going to catch people by having them write into the ether and that鈥檚 how we鈥檙e going to find the students who need help,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e can be a lot more direct in communicating than that, and we should be a lot more direct and a lot more positive.鈥�

In fact, subjecting students to surveillance could push them further into isolation and condition them to lie when officials reach out to inquire about their digital communications, argued Vance of the Future of Privacy Forum.

鈥淓ffective interventions are rarely going to be built on that, you know, 鈥業 saw what you were typing into a Google search last night鈥� or 鈥榳riting a journal entry for your English class,鈥欌�� Vance said. 鈥淭hat doesn鈥檛 feel like it builds a trusting relationship. It feels creepy.鈥�

Updated, Jan. 29

Five days after extremists used the fringe video gaming platform Dlive to livestream a mob attack on the U.S. Capitol, a youthful white nationalist logged onto the site and offered his take about the future of a movement he helped create.

In a drawn-out rant, the alt-right provocateur Patrick Casey downplayed the Capitol insurrection while deriding social media platforms for cracking down on hate speech supporting an overthrow of the U.S. government. As he spoke, he was rewarded with a barrage of animated lemons 鈥� the website鈥檚 digital currency that鈥檚 netted white nationalists tens of thousands of dollars in real-world cash donations 鈥� from a supporter with the username 鈥淧ropagandaDepartment.鈥�

鈥淥ur days on Dlive seem to be numbered,鈥� said Casey, referring to the youth-focused social media platform , many of whom have been banned on mainstream platforms like YouTube and Twitch, its Amazon-owned competitor. Yet, after a pro-Trump mob of militiamen, conspiracy theorists and white nationalists stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, leaving five people dead, even Dlive began to expel prominent streamers 鈥� several of whom, like Casey, were among the site鈥檚 highest-earning personalities, according to research by Megan Squire, a computer science professor at Elon University and senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The violent insurrection at the Capitol reawakened many Americans to the persistent reality of white supremacists among us and how far they鈥檙e willing to go to exert their ideologies. Last week, the Biden administration   to conduct a 鈥渃omprehensive threat assessment鈥� into 鈥渄omestic violent extremism,鈥� calling it 鈥渁 serious and growing national security threat.鈥� Then, on Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security warning that 鈥渋deologically-motivated violent extremists鈥� present a heightened threat across the U.S. But even as political leaders vow to root them out, extremists are busy doing what they have done for decades: Recruiting the next generation of hate-filled zealots.

Now, Squire and other experts on extremism are sounding the alarm about the ways alt-right groups weaponize video games and streaming platforms like Dlive, which is owned by the peer-to-peer file sharing service BitTorrent, to radicalize and recruit teens. While they said the current political climate presents a wide opening for youth to fall down a dystopian rabbit hole, experts recommended a range of strategies that parents and educators can use to identify warning signs and intervene.

At a moment of social unrest where baseless conspiracy theories have been peddled by prominent government leaders, the pandemic has forced millions of students to learn from computer screens all day, away from a support network of teachers and other adults. Even on the most mainstream online platforms, conspiracy theories are just a few clicks away.

鈥淎 lot of it is happening in plain sight,鈥� said Jinnie Spiegler, the director of curriculum and training at the Anti-Defamation League, who oversaw a surge in interest during the Trump administration for classroom materials about youth radicalization after teachers observed troubling behaviors in their own classrooms. 鈥淭here鈥檚 the concern on a personal level that young people are getting sucked into it, frankly,鈥� she said, adding that a growing proliferation of hate speech online 鈥渟ets the stage for that next level of literal white supremacist ideology.鈥�

Squire uses her expertise in data mining to understand online extremism, including the way white nationalists became Dlive鈥檚 top earners, raking in tens of thousands of dollars in recent months playing video games while espousing disinformation and chatting with fans. Among those identified are white nationalists who鈥檝e idolized Adolf Hitler and another with in 2019 at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Casey and Dlive didn鈥檛 respond to requests for comment.

Many of the site鈥檚 top streamers, including Casey, are figures in the 鈥淕royper鈥� movement, a loose who experts say tend to skew young. In , for example, a prominent white nationalist boasted about how 鈥測oung zoomers鈥� 鈥� a reference to Generation Z 鈥� could find his videos on the site鈥檚 homepage 鈥渂ecause I鈥檓 their number-one earner now.鈥� Meanwhile, the has discussed candidly that his site is 鈥渕ainly designed to target children鈥� as young as 11 years old.

Knock, knock: it starts with a joke

Casey, whose group has focused on recruiting college students and the fatal 2017 鈥淯nite the Right鈥� rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, doesn鈥檛 resemble the neo-Nazi archetype. If anything, his clean-shaved face and black polo shirt would allow the 31-year-old to blend in with Best Buy鈥檚 GeekSquad.

Likewise, the Dlive website doesn鈥檛 look anything like a rickety, dark-web outpost for the Ku Klux Klan. It embraces childish imagery, like animated ninjas and ice cream cones, and allows people to play and discuss mainstream video games like The Division 2 and Minecraft. Yet the website also hosts streamers who deny the Holocaust ever happened and fantasize about the murder of Black Lives Matter protesters, relying on the same racist tropes as yesteryear. As Casey spoke, his fans flooded the comments with animated gifs of former President Donald Trump, gorillas and Pepe the Frog, a cartoon that鈥檚 been co-opted by racist trolls.

Alt-right streamers use 鈥渁 three-pronged approach,鈥� Squire said, in their bid to reach younger audiences online: They disseminate their message on leading social media platforms like YouTube, mainstream video games and on platforms like Dlive and Twitch where people livestream videos of themselves playing video games to build a fanbase. The last prong, she acknowledged, is foreign to many adults.

鈥淧eople of my demographic look at that and they鈥檙e like, 鈥榃ait, people would watch another person play video games for 10 hours at a time and then give them money for it?鈥� she said. But many alt-right provocateurs are well-versed in the gaming culture 鈥� and have long used strategies to appeal to a younger crowd.

鈥淭hey want to look and appear hip, popular with the young kids,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he biggest thing they like about [Casey] is the gaming. He鈥檒l game sometimes all night. He鈥檒l game six or eight hours at a time,鈥� while simultaneously engaging with fans in the chatroom and touting disinformation. When he鈥檚 not gaming, he offers political commentary in a format that resembles a cable news segment. Along the way, he scores donations 鈥� in the form of lemons 鈥� from a captive audience.

In some cases, extremists on fringe websites have organized to target the users of mainstream platforms, Squire said. She of 鈥淒iscord raiding,鈥� in which communities from fringe sites bombard groups on the messaging platform Discord 鈥渇ull of people they don鈥檛 like and just harass them.鈥�

Though it鈥檚 a jump to claim that 鈥渧ideo games are radicalizing our children,鈥� they鈥檝e long failed to combat harassment, said Daniel Kelley, associate director of the Center for Technology and Society at the Anti-Defamation League. 鈥淥n the road to radicalization, these are spaces where kids can be inoculated to the fact that hate 鈥� specifically against people based on their identity 鈥� is not a transgressive thing,鈥� adding that streaming sites like Twitch and Dlive are 鈥渁n outgrowth of the game community where hate is normalized.鈥�

That process, experts said, often begins with a callous joke. In the modern era, such jokes are often distributed as memes. What may begin with a crude 鈥渄ead baby joke鈥� can eventually be weaponized as propaganda, including posts pronouncing the Holocaust was a hoax.

Steph Loehr, a performer on the video game streaming platform Twitch who goes by the online moniker 鈥淔erociouslySteph,鈥� has been subjected to the strategy firsthand. Defining hate speech as a joke shields people from accountability, she said. As long as the speaker is able to establish their rhetoric as humor, they鈥檙e rewarded with protection from those who aren鈥檛 laughing.

鈥淓specially if your joke is well-crafted, you can get people on your side saying that person is overreacting or they鈥檙e losing their minds because they thought this was terrible,鈥� said Loehr. 鈥淲hereas the sensitive person is getting pushed out, alienated, attacked for reacting at all.鈥�

On , . In an effort to stamp out abusive behaviors on its platform, Twitch to a new Safety Advisory Council last year 鈥� but the move quickly fell victim to controversy. After Loehr said during a livestream that 鈥渁 lot of you gamers are actually white supremacists,鈥� many in the community erupted in outrage. Loehr, who is transgender, was subjected to a barrage of harassing memes and death threats. She was also 鈥渄oxxed,鈥� with her home address and other personal information shared online. Though less pervasive than on Dlive, a review of Twitch livestreams quickly turned up imagery popular among alt-right personalities.

Yet Loehr still has faith in the Twitch platform, and said it鈥檚 making strides in addressing abuse. But she acknowledged its darkest tendencies could be harmful to children.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a joke that being a Twitch streamer is being a babysitter, but it really is a lot of the time,鈥� the 27-year-old said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 disturbing to me when big content creators don鈥檛 moderate their spaces and aren鈥檛 being good role models for the kids that are watching them 鈥� because there are a lot of kids watching.鈥�

In an email, a Twitch spokeswoman shared the that prohibit 鈥渂ehavior that is motivated by hatred, prejudice or intolerance.鈥� The policy specifically prohibits content that 鈥渆ncourages or supports the political or economic dominance of any race, ethnicity, or religious group, including support for white supremacist/nationalist ideologies.鈥�

While Dlive, Twitch and other social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have taken unprecedented steps since the Capitol siege to remove posts or accounts that violate their terms of use, Kelley, of the Anti-Defamation League鈥檚 Center for Technology and Society, blasted the company for being reactive. Rather than taking a proactive approach, he blamed them for doing far too little before 鈥渂odies hit the ground.鈥�

Brotherhood in disguise

Though the Capitol insurrection has set a new spotlight on the persistent presence of white supremacy in American politics, recruitment efforts aimed at teens have been in place for decades. Their tactics left an impression on criminologist Shannon Reid, who was part of the punk rock scene in the 1990s. At the time, she recalled the scene had two competing factions: The neo-Nazi skinheads and the anti-racist skinheads. For neo-Nazis, concerts and live music venues were what the digital space is today: Places where they appealed to young people and enticed them to join the movement.

鈥淲e have been ignoring them, especially that middle school, high school group. Everybody is thinking about the old guy with the beard and ignoring the younger group who are actually much more violence-prone.鈥� 鈥�Shannon Reid, professor who researches youth in the white power movement

Today, Reid is an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, where she researches youth involvement in the white power movement. Yet despite the recruitment efforts鈥� established history, many questions remain unanswered. While opinion polling has long found that young people are overwhelmingly left-leaning, for example, it remains unclear how many children and teens espouse far-right, extremist ideologies beyond . Part of the problem, Reid argues, comes down to priorities. She argues that American researchers and policymakers have for what they are: Members of street gangs.

鈥淲e have been ignoring them, especially that middle school, high school group,鈥� she said. 鈥淓verybody is thinking about the old guy with the beard and ignoring the younger group who are actually much more violence-prone.鈥�

Still, Reid noted several risk factors that are identifiable by parents and educators and 鈥渙verlap very strongly with the gang literature,鈥� including incarcerated parents and poor school performance.

Brad Galloway, who previously led a chapter of a Portland-based neo-Nazi group with ties to organized crime, is now a research analyst and case manager at Life After Hate, a nonprofit that鈥檚 helped hundreds of people disengage from hate groups. As a teen in the late 1990s, he was recruited by a friend who leveraged Galloway鈥檚 affinity for music and history and led him down a dark path.

鈥淎 lot of people that report being involved in the violent far-right say that they had past trauma or some tough things happen throughout their life鈥� like adverse childhood experiences, he said. After identifying a person鈥檚 interests and vulnerabilities, he said that recruiters play on that while offering a sense of purpose and belonging.

鈥淐amaraderie and brotherhood was very important to making a person feel comfortable with those groups,鈥� Galloway told 社区黑料. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 necessarily just ideology.鈥�

A recent guide from American University鈥檚 Polarization and Extremism Research Innovation Lab outlines in which conflict is resolved through dominance and violence. 鈥淭his frequently leads to anti-democratic opinions and goals, such as a desire for dictatorship, civil war or an end to the rule of law,鈥� according to the guide. Drivers to radicalization can include trauma, a feeling of social isolation and 鈥� as Galloway pointed out 鈥� a desire for love and friendship. Red flags include statements about a 鈥済reat replacement鈥� or a 鈥渨hite genocide鈥� in which a white minority becomes politically oppressed, and a belief that a second American civil war is necessary.

The deadly pandemic, the guide warns, could make things worse as extremists exploit its profound disruptions to spread conspiracy theories. Among them are beliefs that ethnic or religious groups are 鈥渟uper spreaders,鈥� that COVID-19 is part of a 鈥淛ewish master plan conspiracy,鈥� and that the vaccine is part of a sinister plan by 鈥渆lites鈥� to control people.

鈥淓xtremists offer simple, false solutions to complex problems, while conspiracy theories offer a sense of control when we feel otherwise powerless,鈥� according to the guide.

Yet as mainstream platforms like Twitter crack down on disinformation, they鈥檙e creating a new hurdle, said Brian Hughes, the research lab鈥檚 associate director. People 鈥渙n the cusp of radicalization鈥� are migrating to alternative platforms like Telegram, a social media platform that鈥檚 been popular among extremists for years.

Such a reality, he said, is 鈥淐ausing a chain reaction that鈥檚 leading what you might call the MAGA rank-and-file to platforms where extremists are waiting for them 鈥� and are waiting to recruit them.鈥� 

Give 鈥檈m the boot

Casey, the clean-cut, alt-right gamer, predicted the end of an era. After facing years of backlash, the insurrection forced social media companies to take unprecedented action 鈥� with Twitter commencing perhaps the most consequential and controversial by banning Trump, who had some 88 million followers, for potentially inciting further violence. On Dlive, the profiles of top-earning streamers vanished.

In , Dlive announced the suspension of several accounts after the site got shoved 鈥渦nder the spotlight due to some content streamed on our platform,鈥� a subtle acknowledgment that just days earlier to livestream the mayhem. It was clear, however, that it didn鈥檛 take the move lightly.

鈥淲hile we strongly advocate for the empowerment of our content creators,鈥� the company noted, 鈥渨e also have zero tolerance towards any forms of violence and illegal activities.鈥�

Casey acknowledged what he had to lose. Not only did Dlive provide a revenue stream for the movement to fund real-world demonstrations, it gave him a platform to communicate directly with his most ardent followers. But in the aftermath, Casey sees a silver lining: People have like Telegram.

鈥淭hat, in its own, is somewhat of a plus,鈥� he said. While their presence on platforms like YouTube is beneficial to reach a wide audience, he said a mass migration to fringe channels could elevate their goal of 鈥渞eshaping the GOP.鈥�

鈥淲e want these people to be on our side,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e want them to look at us instead of the Republican Party, instead of Charlie Kirk and Ben Shapiro and all of the others,鈥� referring to the president of the conservative Turning Point USA and the editor emeritus of the right-wing news website The Daily Wire.

Still, researchers said that 鈥渄eplatforming鈥� abusive accounts is critical. Loehr, the Twitch livestreamer, agrees.

鈥淢aybe people will find other places to speak, but I don鈥檛 think you鈥檙e emboldening them,鈥� she said. 鈥淰iolence is a response to losing power for these people so it鈥檚 not a surprise that things can get ugly,鈥� but deplatforming is critical to disrupt their access to impressionable minds, she said. 鈥淚t just becomes harder for them to radicalize people and reach people, and that鈥檚 a good thing.鈥�

Schools and parents can also play a role in keeping children safe from online extremist materials, experts said, and should begin with open communication. By understanding teens鈥� point of view, caring adults have a chance to spot red flags and an opportunity to present them with accurate information.

鈥淎 punishment is an easy fix, but if you鈥檙e not really understanding what鈥檚 going on with that young person or that group of young people, you鈥檙e not solving the problem.鈥� 鈥�Jinnie Spiegler, of the Anti-Defamation League on countering white supremacist recruiting 

Spiegler of the Anti-Defamation League suggested that schools teach students about the power of propaganda 鈥� and ways to fight back.

鈥淚n some ways, there鈥檚 nothing teenagers hate more than feeling like they鈥檙e being manipulated and used,鈥� she said, so deconstructing the goals of propaganda could be useful in curtailing its stronghold.

Each year, more than 2,000 schools nationwide use the Anti-Defamation League鈥檚 in the classroom, including resources and training on preventing cyberbullying and combating anti-Semitism.

But one thing adults should avoid, she said, is a punitive approach unless a teen鈥檚 behavior violates school rules or becomes illegal.

鈥淎 punishment is an easy fix, but if you鈥檙e not really understanding what鈥檚 going on with that young person or that group of young people, you鈥檙e not solving the problem,鈥� she said. In fact, punishment could make the situation worse by reinforcing a belief that 鈥淲e鈥檙e so marginalized, we鈥檙e so oppressed, and that鈥檚 why we have to show our power and fight these people.鈥�

Beyond Trump

After years in which alt-right groups idolized Trump, President Joe Biden鈥檚 inauguration presented a major turning point in white nationalists鈥� grip. Though 鈥渦nity鈥� was the central theme to his inaugural address, he offered a sharp rebuke to political extremism and white supremacy 鈥� 鈥渄omestic terrorism that we must confront and we will defeat.鈥�

鈥淧olitics doesn鈥檛 have to be a raging fire, destroying everything in its path,鈥� Biden said. 鈥淓very disagreement doesn鈥檛 have to be a cause for total war. And we must reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured.鈥�

But the vision of unity that Biden offers won鈥檛 be easily won. Before Trump departed on Air Force One for the last time, he offered a promise to his most hardcore supporters gathered on the tarmac of Joint Base Andrews to wave goodbye: 鈥淲e will be back in some form.鈥� But by that point, .

In his Dlive rant, Casey said that Trump was 鈥渢he closest we have to a sympathetic elite,鈥� but criticized his failure 鈥渢o support people getting a little rowdy at the Capitol.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 a tough pill to swallow, but Donald Trump is not our Caesar,鈥� he said. Even though Trump was banned from Twitter and impeached for the second time, Casey said he failed to complete the job 鈥� offering lessons to future 鈥渞ight-wing strongmen鈥� who 鈥渢ry to do what Donald Trump did only better,鈥� highlighting the reality that hate groups, too, are also vying for a comeback.

鈥淭he narrative here is that Donald Trump tried to stage a coup and overthrow the government,鈥� Casey said. 鈥淎t that point, if you鈥檙e going to be treated as if you did it, well, I鈥檓 not going to say it but, ya. Either you go all the way or you don鈥檛 do it at all.鈥�

Correction: The messaging platform Discord is independently owned. An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that is was owned by Microsoft.

Betsy DeVos is the most-sued secretary in the 41-year history of the U.S. Department of Education.

In less than four years, DeVos and her department have been the target of more than 455 lawsuits 鈥� equivalent to being sued once every three days of her tenure, a 74 analysis has found.

By comparison, the review turned up 356 lawsuits against the department in the entire eight years Barack Obama was president.

The suits reflect the extent to which DeVos鈥檚 core agenda 鈥� including issues related to civil rights, special education and for-profit colleges 鈥� has played out in the courtroom.

鈥淚鈥檝e never seen or read about anything like this in my career,鈥� said Phil Catanzano, an education attorney with the international law firm Holland and Knight. His knowledge comes firsthand: A veteran of the department鈥檚 Office for Civil Rights under Presidents George W. Bush and Obama, Catanzano has 18 active cases against the department.

When it comes to her education agenda, the record shows DeVos has racked up more losses than wins. Just last week, a federal judge in California rejected a proposed settlement in a suit brought against the department by student loan borrowers who claimed they were defrauded by predatory and often for-profit colleges. The case pointed to the secretary鈥檚 move to scale back Obama policies designed to protect those who were misled. In a scathing , the judge said her mass denials of loan forgiveness applications could cause students 鈥渋rreparable harm.鈥�

But there have been key exceptions. Also last week, a federal judge in Maryland a suit challenging revisions DeVos made to federal Title IX law designed to protect the rights of students accused of sexual misconduct.

The sheer volume of litigation is such that Jason Botel, a high-ranking administrator for DeVos until 2018, remembers that staff meetings frequently began with 鈥渁 list of the latest lawsuits that had been filed against the department.”

The result is perhaps not surprising for a secretary who took office charged with erasing many aspects of Obama鈥檚 footprint in education, and one uniquely reviled by the nation鈥檚 powerful teachers unions and members of Washington鈥檚 advocacy class.

The analysis 鈥� which has been culled from court documents found on legal websites , and and converted into this searchable database 鈥� reflects the extreme divisiveness that has marked the Trump years. Many parties, from education organizations to states and school districts, say mistrust toward the department has grown far worse than it was under Obama and Bush.

One measure is the degree to which states have taken DeVos to court. Eight multistate lawsuits against the Trump administration have been related to education, compared with none during the Obama years, and 15 states have sued the department individually.

“That鈥檚 actually pretty significant, looking historically,鈥� said Paul Nolette, a political science professor at Marquette University who tracks state litigation against the federal government.

Notably, the attorneys general behind those suits are Democrats, with Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York and California leading the way.

鈥淟itigation is just becoming a more entrenched part of the whole policy process,鈥� Nolette said. 鈥淪tates are just challenging everything.鈥�

The department declined to answer questions from 社区黑料 about the funds and staff time consumed by litigation.

In a statement released after this story published online, department press secretary Angela Morabito wrote: “The radical left and education establishment have done everything they could think of to try and stop Secretary DeVos’ student-first agenda, which threatens their grip of power. They also haven’t successfully stopped the Department from putting students first, returning power to local educators and families, and shrinking Washington’s control over education in America.”

At a speech last week at Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian school in her home state of Michigan, DeVos offered a of her record of loosening federal control over education, particularly in the area for which she has become most closely identified: school choice.

鈥淎t the end of the day we want parents to have the freedom, the choice, and the funds to make the best decisions for their children,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he 鈥榃ashington knows best鈥� crowd really loses their minds over that.鈥�

That passion has landed DeVos in legal hot water. Most recently, three federal judges, including one appointed by President Donald Trump, shot down her plans to rewrite a federal funding formula so private schools could receive millions more in pandemic relief than the law allows.

鈥淪he鈥檚 done quite a bit to poke the bear. And when you poke the bear, it tends to get angry.鈥� 鈥擝en DeGrow, the director of education policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy

Supporters say they are not surprised at how much of her agenda has ended up in court, given her drive to take on powerful interest groups.

鈥淪he鈥檚 done quite a bit to poke the bear. And when you poke the bear, it tends to get angry,鈥� said Ben DeGrow, director of education policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a free market-oriented, Michigan-based think tank that has received funding from the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation. Because of DeVos鈥檚 past support of candidates in Michigan, he added, 鈥渢he teachers unions had their sights set on her from the beginning.鈥�

Erasing the Obama footprint

In many ways, the hyperlitigation can be seen as a direct reaction to DeVos鈥檚 attempts to scale back the department鈥檚 expansive role under Obama. During those eight years, it linked millions in federal grants to states and districts adopting policies such as the Common Core standards and using student test scores to evaluate teacher performance. At the same time, it bypassed Congress and issued a host of guidance and regulations that expanded civil rights protections for minorities and students with disabilities.

When attorney Shiwali Patel joined the department’s civil rights office in early 2016, she felt she was doing 鈥渆xciting and important work鈥� to help students who are often marginalized.

She started right before the department directed schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms that match their gender identity. Though DeVos reportedly opposed the move initially, the Trump administration the guidance a month after he took office in 2017.

For Patel, it was a sign of things to come.

鈥淔rom there, it was pretty clear they were not in the business of protecting civil rights,鈥� said Patel, who left the department about a year later. Now senior counsel and director of Justice for Student Survivors at the National Women鈥檚 Law Center, she鈥檚 one of at least 10 staff members working on litigation against DeVos. The center currently has a lawsuit against the department over the new Title IX regulations, which she said weaken protections for victims of sexual violence.

The suit is among at least 36 brought against DeVos or her administration stemming from her attempts to undo Obama-era actions, 社区黑料 found.

Neal McCluskey, director of the Center for Educational Freedom at the libertarian Cato Institute, said DeVos has “managed to stop a lot of the things that the Obama administration was doing that they didn鈥檛 like.鈥�

One clear example was the 2018 removal of Obama-era intended to reduce racial disparities in suspensions and expulsions. that Black students are suspended at three times the rate of white students and that Black and Hispanic students make up over half of those involved in school-related arrests. But critics said the guidance hampered schools鈥� ability to effectively respond to crime, and DeVos cited it as another example of federal meddling.

The secretary also removed Obama鈥檚 2014 policy, known as the gainful employment rule, requiring career training programs to prove their graduates would be able to find jobs and earn enough to pay back their student loans. Dropping allows for-profit colleges 鈥� to which DeVos has had 鈥� to get billions in student aid funding even if their graduates are unemployed and saddled with debt. DeVos, who has also appointed former officials from the to positions in the department, said removing the rule was an effort to treat all postsecondary programs, including for-profits, the same.

Cited for contempt

Student loans have proven to be a particularly nettlesome issue for DeVos.

Loan disputes have historically formed the bulk of lawsuits against the department, and it has been no different during her tenure. What is new, experts said, is the large number of students filing for loan forgiveness because their schools .

Last fall, DeVos earned the distinction of becoming the first education secretary to be of court and was ordered to pay a $100,000 fine for continuing to collect loan payments from former students of a defunct for-profit chain of colleges. And it took a to force the department to temporarily stop garnishing the wages of student loan borrowers 鈥� as required by the pandemic relief bill Congress passed in March.

DeVos also put off implementation of Obama-era regulations requiring online higher education programs to disclose whether they meet state licensing requirements. Scheduled to go into effect in July 2017, the regulation was delayed by DeVos for three years 鈥� until the National Education Association and the California Teachers Association in federal court last year.

鈥淐ourts are ruling against her all over the country,鈥� said Aaron Ament, president and cofounder of the National Student Legal Defense Network, which has been involved in 12 higher education cases against DeVos and the department.

DeVos similarly postponed a rule meant to ensure that nonwhite students and those with disabilities are not overrepresented in special education or are unfairly punished in school. In 2016, 12 percent of Black students were referred for special education services, compared with 8.5 percent of white students.

That deferral marked the first time the Council of Parent Advocates and Attorneys, an advocacy and legal organization representing families of students with special needs, sued the department. Ultimately, a federal judge ordered the administration to implement the rule after an eight-month delay.

鈥淲e have never in our 22-year history sued an administration and we鈥檝e done so now multiple times,鈥� said CEO Denise Stile Marshall.The litigation is just the most visible symptom of her organization鈥檚 strained relationship with the department. Under previous secretaries, including Margaret Spellings, who led the agency in Bush鈥檚 second term, the advocacy community 鈥渇elt more of a partnership with the department,鈥� Marshall said. Staff members would share relevant documents in advance of their official release, for example.

Now, she added, 鈥渨e have no idea what鈥檚 coming.鈥�

鈥楾hey cut corners鈥�

A key reason for the breakdown is that there is simply less staff at the department to do the sharing. In keeping with Trump鈥檚 frequent promise to it lost during his first year in office 鈥� 550, or roughly 13 percent of its workforce.

The came from the two units responsible for the lion鈥檚 share of litigation against DeVos: the Office for Civil Rights and the Office of Federal Student Aid.

鈥淭hey want to get these quick political wins, but they鈥檙e being held up by the courts.鈥� 鈥擯hil Catanzano, attorney

The result, said Ament of the National Student Legal Defense Network, is that the department is responding to lawsuits with a staff that 鈥渉as been gutted.鈥�

鈥淚 think they cut corners procedurally,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou鈥檒l see consistently Trump and DeVos really failing to consider research and studies in a way that鈥檚 required.鈥�

That鈥檚 what Judge Edward Davila of the Northern District of California wrote Sept. 3 when he DeVos鈥檚 request to dismiss a lawsuit over her rollback of the gainful employment rule.

In his opinion, he referred to a talk by DeVos, noting that 鈥渘owhere in this speech can the court locate an analysis鈥� that explains why she eliminated the rule. Elsewhere, Davila, an Obama appointee, reprimanded the department for leaving out research to support its decision. 鈥淥f course, these references were not identified. In other places, the [department] cites … its own 鈥榓nalysis,鈥� but never clarifies what that analysis entails.鈥�

Such thoughts are not confined to liberal members of the bench. In a , a three-judge panel for the conservative 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, led by George W. Bush appointee Chief Judge William H. Pryor Jr., ruled that a student loan servicer was misleading those in public service jobs into believing their loans were being forgiven. The company had said DeVos issued protected it from lawsuits alleging deceptive conduct. But the judges鈥� unanimous opinion deemed the secretary鈥檚 notice 鈥渘ot particularly thorough.鈥�

In September, a Trump judicial appointee weighed in against DeVos, siding with plaintiffs over her controversial policy to distribute millions in federal pandemic relief funds to private schools. Judge Dabney Friedrich of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia became the third federal judge to rule against DeVos over the plan, saying the bill passed by Congress 鈥渓eft no gaps for the agency to fill and thus delegated no implicit authority to the department.鈥�

鈥淭hey want to get these quick political wins, but they鈥檙e being held up by the courts,鈥� Catanzano said.

Jay Urwitz, a senior fellow at the American Council on Education, served as deputy general counsel in the department during the Obama administration. When someone sues the federal government, he explained, the plaintiff has to prove that the agency鈥檚 action was 鈥渁rbitrary and capricious鈥� 鈥� a very high bar.

It鈥檚 like facing an opponent who 鈥渟tarts from the 20-yard line or starts with a 6-0 lead in the seventh inning,鈥� he said, adding that despite the advantage, DeVos鈥檚 department has still 鈥渕anaged to mess it up.鈥�

Bypassing Congress

Experts say DeVos鈥檚 legal battles also reflect the large degree to which she has failed to push her agenda through Congress.

For example, Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, chairman of the education committee, wanted to address the gainful employment issue through a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.

But that was almost two years ago. In the meantime, progress on the legislation has ground to a halt. Instead, DeVos withdrew the rule, and more than of the states sued her.

鈥淭he American system is such that if one area is not doing anything, it will move somewhere else,鈥� Nolette said. But, as Obama learned as well, executive actions leave officials 鈥渓egally vulnerable.鈥�

DeVos鈥檚 attempt to get relief funds to private schools is another example of using executive rules to go places Congress chose not to. Early last year, the administration began pushing a $5 billion bill to give tax breaks in exchange for donations to private school scholarship programs for poor students. But it wasn鈥檛 until the recent negotiations over another pandemic relief bill that the majority of Republicans gave the proposal much attention.

Leslie Hiner, vice president of programs for EdChoice, a school choice advocacy organization, defended DeVos for trying to give flexibility during the pandemic to desperate parents trying 鈥渢o make this work.鈥�

鈥淪he has taken more slings and arrows than any of us will ever take in our lives,鈥� she said.

Meanwhile, with the nation a week away from an election that could bring DeVos鈥檚 tenure to a close, some of the more explosive cases against her have yet to be heard. Three suits are still pending, for example, seeking to throw out her revisions to Title IX, an item the secretary clearly sees as part of her legacy.

At her recent , DeVos cited the change as an example of how the department has been 鈥渧ery methodical about our rule making and regulatory moves to do everything according to law.鈥�

With roughly 125,000 public comments on the rule and overwhelming opposition to the changes, Catanzano speculated that DeVos likely knew the result would spark litigation. So, unlike its approach to rules on for-profit colleges or transgender students鈥� bathroom use, the department took its time, spending more than two years to craft the new regulation.

鈥淎 Biden administration would have a tough time pulling it down,鈥� he said.

Lead Image: DeVos photo illustration (Getty Images / Meghan Gallagher / 社区黑料)

The district terminated its longstanding relationship with the city鈥檚 police department after George Floyd died at the hands of a Minneapolis officer in May. But since the pandemic closed campuses in March and required students to attend online classes from home, the district has shelled out more than $355,000 for a digital surveillance tool called Gaggle, according to contracts obtained by 社区黑料 through a public records request.

Gaggle is currently used in hundreds of districts across the U.S., relying on artificial intelligence and a team of moderators to scan billions of student emails, chat messages and files each year in search of references to sex, drugs and violence.

Even while the police-free schools movement has garnered momentum in the wake of Floyd鈥檚 death, with districts nationwide reexamining the role of cops on campus, it has not appeared to slow the recent growth of the nearly $3 billion-a-year school security industry. A Gaggle executive said their service is key to student safety, and the company saw a sales surge with more than 100 school districts becoming new customers since schools went virtual in March.

鈥淲ith school now taking place in our students鈥� living rooms and bedrooms, safety is more important than ever,鈥� Jeff Patterson, Gaggle’s founder and CEO, said in the media release. 鈥淢any educators are concerned that without in-person school, they may not be able to identify students in abusive situations or those suffering from mental illness.鈥�

But there鈥檚 little research to back up the company鈥檚 claims and critics argue that Gaggle and similar products could be detrimental to child development and amount to pervasive government surveillance. Civil rights groups and racial justice advocates are especially concerned about online surveillance tools during the pandemic as students across the country spend the majority of their academic lives in front of screens.

In Minneapolis, the latest revelation further outraged activists who cheered the district鈥檚 decision to terminate the police contract but grew wary after officials sought to substitute campus cops with 鈥減ublic safety support specialists鈥� with law enforcement backgrounds.

鈥淢y concern was that they would replace physical policing with technological policing, which appears to be something like Gaggle,鈥� said Marika Pfefferkorn, executive director of the Midwest Center for School Transformation and a proponent of the police-free schools movement. Pfefferkorn pushed the district to split with the cops but said the move was just the first step in curtailing the policing and surveillance of students 鈥� particularly those of color. Instead, Gaggle 鈥渉as the potential to further criminalize students.鈥�

No such thing as confidentiality online

An initial six-month district contract with Gaggle, signed by Chief Operations Officer Karen DeVet just a week after the virus shuttered city schools, totaled $99,603 and was in place through the end of September. A second, three-year contract was signed months after Floyd鈥檚 death and went into effect this month at an annual rate of $255,750. School Board Chair Kim Ellison signed the second contract on Sept. 18. District and school board officials didn鈥檛 respond to multiple requests for comment.

In the contract, Gaggle notes that it 鈥渃annot guarantee security and confidentiality through its services鈥� and 鈥渕ay choose to turn over鈥� student messages to the police. However, the company said it 鈥渟hall not be responsible for contacting, notifying or alerting鈥� law enforcement and cannot guarantee that 鈥渁ll unsafe communications can or will be detected while monitoring your student communications or website content.鈥�

Through the contracts, Gaggle on a range of Google services, including email, Docs, a video platform, the chat service Google Hangouts and other Google Classroom tools. Through artificial intelligence, the company scans students鈥� emails, chat messages and other materials for specific words and phrases that may indicate harm. Moderators evaluate flagged content and notify school officials about references to self-harm, depression, drug use and violent threats. Gaggle鈥檚 algorithm scans student content for trigger words including 鈥渂omb,鈥� 鈥渄runk,鈥� 鈥済un鈥� and 鈥渒ill me,鈥� according to . But it also scans for LGBTQ-specific words like 鈥済ay鈥� and 鈥渓esbian,鈥� which are often flagged as potential bullying.

Such keywords could lead Gaggle to disproportionately subject LGBTQ students to school surveillance, Pfefferkorn said.

鈥淥ver and over again, we continue to see with algorithms that bias is often baked in,鈥� she said.

鈥淎ny time you have a service turned on, you see pornography, you can see drugs and alcohol use or use being talked about. You, of course, have anxiety, depression and suicide being talked about.鈥� 鈥�Bill McCullough, Gaggle鈥檚 vice president of sales. 

In a brief message buried on one Minneapolis high school鈥檚 website 鈥� with the headline 鈥淒on鈥檛 Get Gaggled鈥� 鈥� district staff noted that distance learning presents new challenges in supporting students鈥� mental and emotional health needs and offers a reminder that 鈥渢here is no such thing as confidentiality online.鈥� The webpage links to a video featuring counseling services manager Derek Francis, who notes that the district 鈥渨ill be monitoring chats and postings for inappropriate content and will follow up as is appropriate.鈥�

鈥淢ake sure you鈥檙e not saying things online that you would never say to someone鈥檚 face,鈥� Francis warns students. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 want you to end up regretting something that you post.鈥�

Prior to the pandemic, the Minneapolis district didn鈥檛 believe Gaggle鈥檚 services were necessary, said Bill McCullough, the company鈥檚 vice president of sales. But when the virus closed buildings, 鈥渢hey wanted us to start the service as quickly as possible,鈥� he said. After an initial six-month pilot, the district 鈥渞ealized that this service is extremely valuable and moved to a full contract this fall.鈥�

鈥淎ny time you have a service turned on, you see pornography, you can see drugs and alcohol use or use being talked about,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou, of course, have anxiety, depression and suicide being talked about.鈥�

Ben Feist, the chief programs officer at the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, has urged the state to adopt student data privacy protections for years, due in part to surveillance concerns with companies like Gaggle. In an interview, he said the Minneapolis district鈥檚 partnership with Gaggle is 鈥渕assively intrusive鈥� at a time when students鈥� use of technology for school has reached 鈥渃omplete saturation.鈥�

鈥淎s far as I can tell, nobody has really thought this through, at least from any type of privacy lens. It鈥檚 hugely troubling.鈥� 鈥擝en Feist, chief program officer for ACLU of Minnesota

By terminating the police contract, district leaders have said they鈥檙e working to dismantle what they called a 鈥渨hite supremacist culture.鈥� But Feist said that Gaggle could perpetuate racial disparities in student discipline. The Minneapolis district educates about 35,000 students, roughly 65 percent of whom are youth of color.

鈥淭here鈥檚 every reason to believe that the implementation of this type of surveillance is going to have a disproportionate impact on students of color and bring more people into a surveillance net that could have been avoided,鈥� he said. 鈥淎s far as I can tell, nobody has really thought this through, at least from any type of privacy lens. It鈥檚 hugely troubling.鈥�

Searching for 鈥榮ad kids鈥�

Gaggle and similar student surveillance platforms have long marketed themselves as crucial to preventing school violence. After the 2018 mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida, for example, companies bombarded education leaders with sales pitches touting their wares as the key ingredient to precluding more carnage. In the pandemic era, Gaggle is marketing itself as a tool for mental health intervention.

鈥淧eople are using our product to identify, largely, who the sad kids are in the school district,鈥� said McCullough, who noted concerns that the pandemic has taken a toll on students鈥� emotional wellbeing and could lead to a spike in youth suicides. Such a trend has emerged in students鈥� emails and other digital communications, he said, with an uptick in student comments about depression, suicide and domestic abuse. 鈥淏ut thankfully kids are still talking about it and we鈥檙e able to go and identify those kids who are in crisis鈥� to connect them with mental health services. McCullough declined to detail how his service has been used in Minneapolis, citing student privacy concerns.

Last school year, Gaggle monitored more than 4.5 million students鈥� online activities across the U.S., efforts it claims saved 927 lives, according to a company media release. In total, the company scanned 6.25 billion items within school accounts for content deemed harmful, including 64,000 references to suicide or self harm, 38,000 references of violence toward others and 18,000 instances of nudity or sexual content.

School surveillance doesn鈥檛 stop when classes end for the day. Prior to the pandemic, about 40 percent of incidents occurred after school hours, according to company data. But since March, incidents happening after hours increased to 55 percent. While threats of violence decreased by 43 percent after the pandemic closed campuses, the platform observed an uptick in students sending each other nude selfies.

Several years ago, concerning material was most often found in student emails, McCullough said. But now, messages are most often flagged in Google Docs, which students have used as makeshift chat rooms. In this context, students are often 鈥渢heir most authentic self鈥� and typically share documents 鈥渨ith just a few friends,鈥� he said.

Minneapolis and other districts have also paid Gaggle to monitor student communications in the chat tool Google Hangouts, which has taken on a new role in education during the pandemic. Without face-to-face interaction between students, they鈥檙e using Hangouts to collaborate on science projects and other assignments, McCullough said.

But critics argue that schools鈥� use of tools like Gaggle could discourage students from expressing themselves. Elizabeth Laird, the senior fellow of student privacy at the Center for Democracy and Technology, questioned whether such surveillance runs counter to schools鈥� mission of providing supportive environments where students can speak freely and learn from mistakes.

鈥淲hen people are surveilled in this way, it really limits that kind of free expression and can have a chilling effect on what they鈥檙e comfortable saying and doing,鈥� she said. Laird also raised concerns about the accuracy of algorithms, which often struggle to decipher true threats from slang or humor. Such noisy data could flag some students unnecessarily and miss signs that are genuinely concerning, she said.

School interactions with police are also a concern. In a recent parent survey, the Center for Democracy and Technology found that while most parents support the use of education technology, they鈥檙e also concerned about protecting their children鈥檚 digital privacy from vulnerabilities like hacks. Of the 1,200 participants who completed the online survey in May and June, 55 percent of parents 鈥� and 61 percent of those who are Black 鈥� said they鈥檙e concerned that .

Though Gaggle rarely contacts the police directly, McCullough said, the district hasn鈥檛 said how it鈥檚 responding to tips generated from the surveillance service.

The district completed a chaotic candidate search last month and hired 11 鈥減ublic safety support specialists鈥� to replace the school-based police. The district has refused to disclose the names and qualifications of the 11 people who filled the openings, but documents obtained by 社区黑料 suggest that more than half bring experience in policing, security or corrections 鈥� bolstering critics鈥� fears that the district ended the police contract but created an internal security force. According to an August school board agenda, the specialists training is supposed to encompass 鈥渟chool security 101,鈥� de-escalating conflicts, dismantling the 鈥渟chool-to-prison pipeline鈥� 鈥� and Gaggle.

Pfefferkorn, the local activist, blasted Minneapolis schools for a lack of transparency in its student surveillance practices and demanded that officials answer hard questions.

鈥淚t鈥檚 an opportunity for the district to hold a meeting where they share鈥� how they鈥檙e using Gaggle to monitor students, she said. 鈥淎lthough you鈥檙e in a contract, contracts have been broken.鈥�

Among them is the co-owner of a private security firm who previously worked in policing at the Minneapolis airport. Another worked for more than a decade as a police officer in Wisconsin, while several others offer experience from the juvenile justice system. Meanwhile, a larger share bring experience in education, including as special education assistants and deans in charge of student discipline. However, the number with law enforcement credentials has alarmed activists and several job applicants, both intent on breaking from what they called the district鈥檚 pervasive policing and surveillance of students 鈥� particularly those of color.

鈥淚t鈥檚 almost like they wanted police officers, but technically not police officers,鈥� said one finalist who didn鈥檛 get the job but spoke on the condition of anonymity because they hope to work for the district in the future. The applicant offered years of experience in both education and criminal justice but left with an impression that district officials were unsure how the new hires would function day-to-day. 鈥淚t was kind of weird.鈥�

The move comes just months after the school board voted unanimously to terminate its contract with the Minneapolis Police Department in the wake of George Floyd鈥檚 death at the hands of a local officer in May, setting off a wave of unprecedented national protests over racial injustice. The Minneapolis district became one of the first in the country to sever ties with its police department, a decision education leaders said was part of a bigger effort to dismantle what they called a 鈥渨hite supremacist culture鈥� in the school system and improve campus climate for youth of color.

In place of school police, the district hired 11 鈥減ublic safety support specialists鈥� it touted as a 鈥渂ridge between in-school intervention and law enforcement.鈥� Though the specialists will serve a security function, the district said they鈥檒l be trained to build relationships with students and defuse conflicts before they become violent and demand a police response. The specialists, whose salaries were advertised at $65,000 to $86,000 a year, begin training Wednesday, the district said in a statement.

Their training 鈥渨ill continue to clarify the focus for these staff is not behavior enforcement,鈥� the statement continued. 鈥淩ather, they are critical incident support staff who connect students and other staff to the many resources available to support them,鈥� such as counseling.

Yet many in the community remain skeptical and have accused Minneapolis schools of replacing campus police with 鈥渞ent-a-cops.鈥� Floyd鈥檚 death prompted districts across the country to re-examine the role officers play in schools, and activists fear that the high-profile district鈥檚 actions could set back progress in the larger 鈥減olice-free schools鈥� movement.

Though school leaders rushed to interview, hire and train the support specialists before classes resumed this month, the district failed to meet its self-imposed deadline, and applicants who were ultimately turned down painted a process in disarray. One disgruntled finalist, who currently works for the district but said they applied with ambitions of reforming the school security apparatus, called the lengthy interview process a 鈥渟ham.鈥� The switch from school-based police to support specialists is simply 鈥渃osmetic鈥� and isn鈥檛 likely to result in substantive changes in a school system where educators are quick to suspend students, said the finalist.

鈥淚t鈥檚 fake,鈥� said the applicant, who asked not to be identified because of their current job.

The district for support specialists with backgrounds in criminal justice. Then it backtracked, claiming that the policing prerequisite was an error and that candidates鈥� ability to build positive relationships with students was most important. Community activists who oppose school policing said that misstep should have prompted the district to restart the selection process, especially since the delay to a return to in-person learning caused by the pandemic gave them additional time.

In August, 社区黑料 obtained copies of the 24 finalists鈥� r茅sum茅s, and at least 14 had experience as police officers, corrections officials or private security guards. Finalist Mohamed Ali, a former dean at the Minneapolis district in charge of student discipline, received an offer, he told 社区黑料, but had to turn it down because he had already accepted another job at a charter school. The hiring process dragged on far longer than he anticipated, Ali said.

鈥淚 just felt like I didn鈥檛 have time to wait,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 just made the best decision for me and my family.鈥�

The delayed process put finalist Alfred Harris in a bind. Harris worked as a correctional officer for more than a decade before becoming a paraprofessional at a suburban Minneapolis school district. He got laid off from his most recent job as a gym manager when the pandemic hit. Because he got so far into the hiring process with Minneapolis schools, he thought he had the safety support specialist job lined up and stopped applying elsewhere, he said. Then, last week, he learned otherwise.

The district put Harris and 11 others all on the same rejection email 鈥� a move that infuriated multiple finalists. After several replied to the email and accused district officials of acting unprofessionally, the district followed up and apologized for compromising their personal information due to the 鈥渦nauthorized public dissemination鈥� of the rejection letter.

Among those who blasted the error was finalist Micheal Delgado, previously the head of security at a suburban Minneapolis school district who most recently worked in security for a Fortune 500 company. Delgado was furloughed because of the pandemic.

鈥淯sually that鈥檚 done on an individual basis, I would assume, so I thought that was pretty tactless,鈥� Delgado said. 鈥淚 just kind of shook my head and was like, 鈥榃ell, maybe it鈥檚 a blessing in disguise that I鈥檓 not working for an organization that would do something like that.鈥欌��

Of the 24 finalists, 12 were rejected and one 鈥� Ali 鈥� turned down the job. That would leave 11 remaining, the same number as the available positions. A district spokesman declined to disclose whether the 11 remaining finalists were ultimately hired. An official previously told 社区黑料 they plan to station a specialist at each of the district鈥檚 seven comprehensive high schools while the other four will support emergency response across the city. 社区黑料 reached out to each of the 11 remaining finalists; two declined to comment and the others didn鈥檛 respond to voicemails.

The district said they 鈥渦nderstand people鈥檚 concerns with the process 鈥� especially its length,鈥� but it was delayed because of an 鈥渦nprecedented amount of transparency and community involvement.鈥�

About more than removing cops from schools

As the Minneapolis district charts a new path without school-based police, it has promoted the support specialists as a group of racially diverse role models who are supposed to form positive relationships with students. A desire to build strong bonds with teens was a common thread among the finalists.

鈥淚 have a passion for helping to rehabilitate our youth of tomorrow,鈥� one noted in a cover letter. 鈥淢y passion is showing youths another way of dealing with their anger and pain.鈥� The cover letter for another finalist, who offered experience leading youth theater programs, touted a career 鈥渄edicated to fostering strong social and emotional skills amongst youth.鈥�

The police contract the board recently dissolved set similar priorities, noting a mission to 鈥渟upport a safe and welcoming environment while acting as a positive role model/informal mentor for students.鈥� Officers were not supposed to engage in school discipline, according to the contract, but were instead directed to perform youth engagement activities, craft safety plans, defuse conflicts and 鈥渦tilize reasonable discretion in enforcing laws鈥� in schools. The contract required officers to be trained in adolescent development, restorative justice and 鈥渂ias-free policing.鈥�

SImilarly, the new support specialists aren鈥檛 supposed to engage in routine student discipline, according to the district, and are there to help create safety plans, respond to crises and connect with students. Their training is supposed to encompass de-escalating conflicts, restorative justice, dismantling the 鈥渟chool-to-prison pipeline,鈥� 鈥渟chool security 101鈥� and how to restrain children, according to a school board agenda from August. The district document also noted training in online behaviors.

Student activists鈥� push for police-free schools is about more than removing officers from campuses, said Maria Fernandez, senior campaign strategist at the Advancement Project, a national racial-justice group. It鈥檚 about ending a culture of policing and surveillance that she said is pervasive in many schools, especially those where Black and brown students make up the majority.

鈥淭his public safety support specialists鈥� use of surveillance technology like Gaggle,鈥� she said, 鈥渃ontinues to perpetuate policing and criminalization.鈥� How Minneapolis responds to the imperative to change student policing is 鈥渟haping fights across the country,鈥� she said.

The Minneapolis school district about 35,000 students, roughly 65 percent of whom are youth of color. Meanwhile, more than two-thirds of school staff are white, according to district data. But staff of color often serve in school support roles like special education assistants and deans, one finalist said. To improve conditions for youth of color, the district must do more to diversify teachers and administrators, according to the finalist.

Harris, the finalist who is an ex-corrections officer, questioned the district鈥檚 decision to terminate its police contract in the first place. Clearly the district felt its schools could be dangerous if it saw the need to station armed police in the buildings, he said. But those threats 鈥渄idn鈥檛 disappear just because there was social injustice with George Floyd.鈥� He worried that community pushback prompted school officials to hire support specialists without law enforcement experience even though they could be 鈥渏ust as authoritative as a police officer鈥� but without adequate experience in confronting dangerous situations.

鈥淎 social worker is not going to break up a fight 鈥� they鈥檙e just not,鈥� he said. 鈥淚鈥檝e been in schools for many years, and they鈥檙e not. They may know how to de-escalate one, but once it gets to an area of unsafe environment, they鈥檙e not paid to do that, they don鈥檛 even have that type of training.鈥�

But Ali, the finalist who turned down the job offer, said he supported the school board鈥檚 decision to terminate the police contract because students made their opposition loud and clear. He said he felt the support specialist position would be a marked improvement. Deans and other support staff know what students experience at home and know how to create positive relationships, he said.

Rather than serving as a 鈥減erson of authority,鈥� the support specialists will offer students someone they 鈥渃an go to for help and seek out advice,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 more of a person you can see as a mentor, a role model, someone you can get support from.鈥�

Even though the lengthy hiring process led Ali to leave his job with the Minneapolis district, he has just one regret: leaving behind the students he got to know as a dean.

鈥淚 just hope whoever got the position that I declined is there for the kids and is there for the staff and the parents,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 know it鈥檚 not an easy job.鈥�

The move has already angered racial justice activists who cheered the district鈥檚 swift decision to terminate its police contract after George Floyd鈥檚 death at the hands of a Minneapolis officer. Floyd鈥檚 May death led educators across the country to remove police from their campuses, but the Minneapolis district鈥檚 plan to replace officers with 11 鈥減ublic safety support specialists鈥� 鈥� touted as a 鈥渂ridge between in-school intervention and law enforcement鈥� 鈥� has activists worried about undoing progress made in the wake of recent protests.

鈥淚鈥檓 afraid that they鈥檙e going to set a dangerous trend nationally, and that all these districts that have been ending contracts are going to look to Minneapolis and say, 鈥極h, we鈥檒l just create our own internal security force,鈥� that will continue to perpetuate policing and criminalization,鈥� said Maria Fernandez, senior campaign strategist at the Advancement Project, a national racial justice organization.

Among the district鈥檚 24 finalists, at least 14 have experience as police officers, corrections officials or private security guards, according to the candidates鈥� r茅sum茅s, which a source provided to 社区黑料 on the condition of anonymity because they weren鈥檛 authorized to share the documents.

Six finalists have some policing experience and at least one currently works as an officer 鈥� in suburban Minneapolis. Six have served as security guards. Another eight have experience in corrections, including five who worked in the juvenile justice system and a former sheriff鈥檚 department officer who listed jailhouse weapon 鈥渟hakedowns鈥� as experience.

At the same time, more than half of the finalists currently work for the district in capacities that include special education and student discipline. 社区黑料 is withholding the applicants鈥� names to protect their privacy during the interview process.

Education activist Kenneth Eban, who has worked for years to remove officers from Minneapolis schools, said he was alarmed by the share of finalists with law enforcement backgrounds.

鈥淭his is just another way of being able to police and surveil students, especially students of color,鈥� he said. The 鈥渙versurveillance of students of color鈥� and an adversarial campus climate would still be a problem in the district if none of the support specialists had policing backgrounds, he said, but the finalists suggest that school leaders aren鈥檛 fully committed to less punitive approaches to campus safety. 鈥淲hen I think about a corrections officer, I think about the terrible conditions that people who are in prison experience and how corrections officers uphold that system and that environment.鈥�

Karen DeVet, the district鈥檚 chief operations officer, said it was important for the district to have an emergency response and security plan in place before the upcoming school year begins September 8. Despite the national uprising following Floyd鈥檚 death, she said the district is 鈥渘ot going to compromise on protecting our students and our staff.鈥� However, she sought to allay fears that the district simply plans to replace school-based police with more of the same.

鈥淭hese are not licensed law enforcement officials who carry guns and a toolbelt鈥� but instead will be specialists trained to defuse conflicts before they become violent, she said. While they serve an immediate need, they鈥檙e part of a larger district effort to improve school climate. 鈥淭o address those root causes of why our students and our families don鈥檛 always feel welcome, heard or seen in our schools is going to take time,鈥� DeVet said.

The specialist position began generating controversy last month after the district released a job posting capable of breaking up fights, providing security at district events and fostering 鈥渢rusting, nurturing and learning environments.鈥� The posting listed a salary range of $65,695 to $85,790. Following the community uproar, the district backtracked and said the law enforcement prerequisite was an error 鈥� and that candidates鈥� ability to build relationships with students was paramount.

In , the district said an 鈥渁ccelerated schedule鈥� to ensure that the specialists are hired and receive special training before the start of the new school year 鈥渄id not allow for creation of a perfect job description.鈥�

鈥淲e did consider restarting鈥� the hiring process, DeVet said, but after looking at applications, the district 鈥渇elt like we had a really strong pool,鈥� including educators with master鈥檚 degrees and others from the law enforcement realm with crisis experience.

The 11 specialist roles are the first part of the district鈥檚 new campus safety strategy, which officials plan to unveil at a school board meeting next week. Once hired, officials plan to station specialists at the district鈥檚 seven comprehensive high schools while the other four will support emergency response across the city. After receiving more than 100 applications and conducting interviews with more than 50 candidates, district officials, prioritizing internal candidates, settled on a top tier of two dozen finalists they said were racially diverse.

One applicant leads a youth mentorship program. Another is a military veteran who currently works at a high school where he helps teachers interact with families who have limited English speaking skills. In a cover letter, one applicant noted a career 鈥渄edicated to fostering strong social and emotional skills鈥� among students as a key attribute and said that positive relationships are key to generating 鈥渁 truly safe, inclusive and supportive school environment.鈥�

Many of the internal candidates already work as deans assisting administrators with student discipline and campus security. Yet Marika Pfefferkorn, executive director of the Midwest Center for School Transformation and an advocate against police in Minneapolis schools, said the deans would be given more responsibilities as support specialists, including the authority to call police for backup. She accused the district of creating the positions without offering to receive community input and missing an opportunity to reimagine its approach to school safety.

鈥淚f you don鈥檛 actually change the culture of the system, you just replace who鈥檚 doing it,鈥� she said.

The teachers union has made a similar argument. Greta Callahan, the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers president, has to 鈥渞ent-a-cops.鈥�

When the union called for police-free campuses, 鈥渨e did not mean, 鈥楬ire a bunch of private security officers and put them in our buildings,鈥欌�� Callahan told City Pages, a local news outlet. 鈥淟et me ask you a question. If I order a sandwich, and I say, 鈥楬old the mayo,鈥� does that mean put a bunch of Miracle Whip all over it?鈥� They鈥檙e missing the point.鈥�

One applicant, who is currently the head of security at a suburban school district, is a military police veteran who served combat missions in Iraq. Another works for a private security firm at an Amazon distribution center. A third finalist currently is employed as a corrections officer at a suburban jail where responsibilities include mediating disputes, enforcing rules and checking cells 鈥渇or contraband and signs of security breaches,鈥� according to the candidate’s r茅sum茅, which also notes training on 鈥渢he impacts of trauma and institutional racism.鈥�

Rashad Turner, executive director of the Minnesota Parent Union, said he was happy that so many of the applicants already work in education, but he also sees value in candidates with law enforcement experience coming to work for the district.

鈥淗aving that familiarity with the law enforcement system, but leaving it to serve students, I鈥檇 say that could be a good thing,鈥� said Turner, who went to college for criminal justice before losing faith in policing as a career. 鈥淭o have that understanding of the injustices in the law enforcement system, I could see that being valuable鈥� in a role centered on student discipline. He said the district鈥檚 plan to begin the upcoming academic year remotely because of the pandemic could allow additional time for the specialists to receive training that ensures that they鈥檙e 鈥渟erving students鈥� best interests鈥� rather than working as a 鈥渟ouped-up hall monitor that is targeting the students.鈥�

Eban, the community activist, took a more aggressive stance. He said the district should restart the hiring process altogether because the job posting that sought applicants with criminal justice experience could have prompted some qualified applicants to opt out of the process.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 understand 鈥� now knowing that we鈥檙e also going into distance learning to start the year 鈥� why this process cannot be restarted to get a better pool of applicants, to get a better pool of finalists that could help support students in our communities in a different way,鈥� Eban said.

鈥淚f you think this cannot happen to you, I鈥檓 here to tell you I used to think the same exact thing,鈥� said Noel Glacer, a Florida-based security professional. The message 鈥� belied by the statistical rarity of school shootings 鈥� was part cautionary tale, part call to action.  

Glacer is no dispassionate observer. In February, his son, Jake, was in a psychology class at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School when a gunman opened fire, killing 17. Glacer urged people in the room to donate to SOS Parkland, a nonprofit that鈥檚 raising money to equip the city鈥檚 schools with additional security.

鈥淚t was horrible,鈥� he said, recalling the Valentine鈥檚 Day shooting. 鈥淚t can happen to you. It can.鈥�

Glacer spoke at a roundtable in Washington in late June, part of the annual conference of the Security Industry Association, a trade group. Attendees included Trump administration officials, legislators from both parties, security-company executives, and industry lobbyists.

Security officials in the room hawked a range of products that could have been ripped from a James Bond movie: surveillance cameras with facial recognition capability, automated door locks, gunshot detection sensors, and software that scans social media platforms in search of the next shooter. If schools across the country put a larger emphasis on securing their buildings, they said, educators could prevent shootings or, at the very least, mitigate the bloodshed.

Each major school shooting 鈥� Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland 鈥� has added fuel to a multibillion-dollar industry encompassing everything from sophisticated surveillance technology to high-priced consultants to explain it all to anxious educators.

The recent tragedies are pumping new energy 鈥� not to mention funds 鈥� into strategies to keep children safe, including millions of dollars in federal money from the STOP School Violence Act.

As each tragedy stokes fresh outrage from parents, education leaders say they鈥檙e inundated with sales pitches from security companies, each with the same basic message: You could be next.

Such a climate is 鈥渞ipe for exploitation,鈥� argues Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services, which consults districts on school safety planning. The result, according to many critics, is that the security industry has dominated the policy response to school shootings, drowning out subtler conversations about issues ranging from mental health to gun control in favor of a rush to adopt costly, and largely unproven, methods to harden schools.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not that they鈥檙e villains and they don鈥檛 care and they don鈥檛 want safe schools 鈥� I鈥檓 not trying to send that message,鈥� said Trump, who has no relation to the president. 鈥淏ut they鈥檙e certainly opportunistic. At the end of the day, they鈥檙e looking for new revenue streams.鈥�

The Columbine 鈥榃ake-up Call鈥�

It began with Columbine.

Before that, Guy Grace said, security efforts in his Colorado school district centered on kids with spray paint cans, not guns. For Grace, director of security and emergency preparedness at Littleton Public Schools, the shift was instantaneous.

On the morning of April 20, 1999, he was lifting weights at the gym when his pager went off. Two students had walked into Columbine High School in a neighboring school district and killed 15 people, including themselves. After that, his job was never the same.

鈥淚t was a complete change, just a wake-up call for us all,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t certainly has shaped a lot of what we do across the country in regards to school safety.鈥�

Before Columbine, Littleton didn鈥檛 have any security cameras at its schools, Grace said. The district has since installed more than a thousand cameras, some with analytics capabilities that can alert authorities to unusual activity, such as someone walking onto school grounds in the middle of the night. The cameras are part of the comprehensive school security equipment the district installed after the community in 2013 providing more than $7.5 million for the upgrades. Just last year, he said, a gunshot detection sensor, which can recognize the audio signatures of gunfire, alerted officials when a student committed suicide on a school playground.

The growth in Littleton鈥檚 school security infrastructure is mirrored in districts across the country. During the 1999-2000 school year, 19 percent of schools were equipped with security cameras, according to . By the 2015-16 school year, 81 percent of schools had video surveillance. The percentage of schools reporting that they control access to their buildings has also spiked, from 75 percent to 94 percent, during the same time period.

Fear Factor

The surge in school surveillance has been a boon for companies that make and install the products. In 2017, security equipment and services generated $2.7 billion in revenue, according to, a market-research firm. Each mass school shooting heightens the profile of school security products, said Jim Dearing, a senior analyst there.

The market analysis underscores what any salesman knows: Anxiety can be good for business.

鈥淔or anyone to say, 鈥業t鈥檚 not going to happen here,鈥� all they鈥檙e doing is playing the law of large numbers and assuming that they鈥檙e going to get lucky,鈥� said Harry Rhulen, co-founder of Firestorm Solutions, a crisis-and-risk-management firm that contracts with school districts.

To pitch his company鈥檚 violence-prevention program, Rhulen laid out a chilling scenario: Every school in America, he said, has students, teachers, or staff members who are 鈥渟itting on the fence.鈥� Maybe they鈥檙e dealing with mental health issues. Maybe they鈥檙e experiencing spousal abuse or are dependent on drugs or alcohol. 鈥淪omething may push them off the fence.鈥�

The upshot: One of them could become the next shooter, he said, 鈥渁nd there鈥檚 just no way to know which school is next.鈥�

Among the company鈥檚 school safety is an anonymous reporting tool, which allows students to report troubling behaviors they observe in peers, and social media monitoring systems that crawl through platforms like Facebook to identify threats.

But is Rhulen framing the danger fairly?

David Ropeik, a consultant on the psychology of risk perception, that a K-12 student will be shot and killed at a public school are roughly 1 in 614 million. According to the most recent , between 1992 and 2015, fewer than 3 percent of murders in which the victims were children and fewer than 1 percent of youth suicides occurred at schools. The data showed that reported incidents of violent crimes in schools has declined over the same time period.

Still, a third of parents say they fear for their child鈥檚 safety at school, according to a recent poll by Phi Delta Kappa International, a professional association for educators. That poll found widespread support for school security measures like armed school police and metal detectors.

Marketing Tragedy

Recognizing the heightened concern, officials at the security industry conference seized the moment. Inside the Independence Ballroom at the Grand Hyatt Washington, salesmen touted some of their latest wares: door locks that open with a smartphone app, motion detectors that notify staff before a visitor reaches the building, and cameras that track guests as they walk around campus.

There鈥檚 a larger force motivating these new offerings. The school security industry will experience slower growth in the coming years, Dearing of IHS Markit predicts. Since a majority of schools now have surveillance equipment, fewer districts are entering the market for the first time. In response, he said, companies are marketing the next generation of school safety products, like scanners that track license plates in the parking lot and high-security classroom doors.

Salespeople argue, and they hope schools agree, that as older products become obsolete, schools install the newest ones to stay safe. In order to persuade educators, security companies are making in-person sales pitches and building pop-up displays at education conferences. Some companies hold their own events to promote the importance of heavily outfitted campuses.

For example, Axis Communications, a company that sells surveillance cameras and other hardware, hosts school-safety symposiums several times a year in cities across the country. Scott Dunn, the company鈥檚 senior director of business development solutions and services, said the symposiums aren鈥檛 designed as marketing pitches but rather serve as opportunities to inform educators about the need for security plans and technology to keep kids safe.

But interactions with security companies have left a bad taste in the mouths of some district leaders.

After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, Connecticut awarded the Newtown district $50 million to build a new, state-of-the-art campus. Now-retired superintendent Joseph Erardi quipped that after the tragedy, he made 鈥�dozens of immediate new best friends鈥� from the ranks of security companies looking to get their products inside the school.

鈥淚n some cases, they were sincere,鈥� said Erardi, who retired in 2017 and now consults districts on school safety planning. 鈥淚n other cases, it was all about branding and marketing Newtown.鈥�

Grace, the director of security and emergency preparedness in Littleton, had a similar experience. In 2013, a nightmare unfolded in his district. In that lasted less than 80 seconds, a senior at Arapahoe High School walked into the school and killed a classmate before taking his own life.

For security companies, Grace鈥檚 reality became a sales pitch.

鈥淭hey start pounding all the school districts across the country and then they say, 鈥楧on鈥檛 be like Arapahoe High School,鈥欌�� Grace said. 鈥淵ou sit there and go, 鈥榃ho is this idiot? He鈥檚 trying to capitalize on a tragedy that we just had in our school district.鈥� I just despise that with a passion.鈥�

鈥楬ow Many More Kids Have to Die?鈥�

As industry leaders sipped cocktails at the security-conference reception, Representative John Rutherford, Republican of Florida, acknowledged he owed a recent legislative success to people in the room. Just weeks before the February shooting in Parkland, Rutherford had introduced the STOP School Violence Act, a law that directs hundreds of millions of dollars over a decade toward school security and will thus be a boon for security companies. (Every year, districts spend far more than that on such companies鈥� products and services.)

鈥淭he STOP School Violence Act could not have gotten across the finish line as quickly as it did without the support of this group, as well as the school safety caucus and the advocacy from the Partner Alliance for Safer Schools,鈥� Rutherford said.

Much of the conference鈥檚 discussions around campus security were led by the Secure Schools Alliance and the Partner Alliance for Safer Schools, two advocacy groups that urge schools to take more measures to prevent shootings and other threats. Secure Schools is funded by security companies, and the Partner Alliance is a joint venture of the Security Industry Association and the National Systems Contractors Association, both trade groups. The Partner Alliance and Secure Schools maintain advisory boards staffed largely by officials from security companies; for example, the public affairs director of Allegion, a security company that focuses on door locks and other entry technology, serves on the boards of both groups.

Robert Boyd, executive director of the Secure Schools Alliance, says his group is funded solely by security companies because 鈥渢hey get it.鈥� (He added that the group plans to add officials who represent school police and fire marshals to their board.)

He said leading companies like Allegion aren鈥檛 investing in school security efforts to sell more locks. Instead, the company recognizes a dire need.

鈥淭hey look at it and they say, 鈥榊ou know, we understand what happened in Sandy Hook was a facilities failure,鈥欌�� Boyd said. 鈥淔olks in the security industry, we understand how to keep intruders out of a building.鈥�

But that鈥檚 not to say they don鈥檛 make a profit. In 2017,  $2.4 billion in net revenue, and Timothy Eckersley, president of Allegion鈥檚 Americas region, said school security is a 鈥渟ignificant鈥� part of its business.

Beyond the STOP Act, security companies and partner advocacy groups have also worked to ensure that conversations around hardened campuses continue in Washington. In 2016, Rep. Susan Brooks, Republican of Indiana, and Rep. Rick Larsen, Democrat of Washington, teamed up to form the Congressional School Safety Caucus. Brooks acknowledged that the caucus was formed after executives at security companies with offices in her district, including Allegion, urged the move.

In order to advance federal policies like the STOP legislation, Boyd said, advocates with his group 鈥渉it the pavement鈥� on Capitol Hill. 鈥淵ou go office to office, staff to staff, committee to committee.鈥�  

The group also advocates at the state level for , including ones that establish security standards (which can require, as , technology like surveillance systems and bullet-resistant entryways), allot funding for hardware upgrades, and mandate frequent facility assessments. Boyd is also a co-chair of the homeland security task force at the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, a national nonprofit that drafts state-level legislation for use by conservative legislators across the U.S. After highlighting states with school security laws at the group鈥檚 annual meeting earlier this week, he said, he hopes additional state lawmakers get on board.

Trump, the safety consultant, said he is concerned about the influence that security companies, and the advocacy partners they fund, wield over lawmakers.

鈥淲hile physical security has a piece in the puzzle, the concerning part is when big business in the security industry is trying to single-handedly have laws changed and rewrite codes, which at no coincidence benefit their business interests,鈥� he said.

Boyd pushed back on this argument. He maintains that school security should be decided at the district level but that the state guidelines his association works on help ensure that schools aren鈥檛 鈥渢hrowing money at the problem.鈥�

He said he鈥檚 simply frustrated with the level of security deemed acceptable at schools. In the interests of student safety, he鈥檚 of the opinion that 鈥渟chool security needs to be a little bit more inconvenient,鈥� like it is in other government buildings such as federal courthouses.

鈥淲hen you go to that courthouse, if they tell you, 鈥楧rop your pants,鈥� you鈥檙e going to drop your pants or you鈥檙e not getting into the building,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e going to inspect you thoroughly because we鈥檝e had our share of courthouse shootings, and they stopped them. At what point does the collective outrage say, 鈥楨nough鈥�? How many more kids have to die?鈥�

The State of Research

Indeed, Boyd and others in the security industry say their products save lives. 鈥淣o shooter has ever breached a locked classroom door,鈥� he said, pointing to the example of the shooting at Sandy Hook.

In fact, the school鈥檚 front door was locked, but that didn鈥檛 stop the gunman. He shot through a window near the front entrance to get in. In the part of the building where the shooting unfolded, classroom doors only locked with a key 鈥� from the outside. More could have been done to protect students, he said.

鈥淚f you had a ballistic-graded entrance and you had lockable classroom doors, that death toll comes way down 鈥� if he even gets in,鈥� he said.

Superintendents and state schools chiefs acknowledged in interviews that physical security is crucial to maintaining safe schools.

But in some cases, tech-driven school security mechanisms have been plagued by human error. In Parkland, for example, emergency personnel the school鈥檚 surveillance cameras were operating on a 20-minute delay, complicating the police response.

In fact, aside from anecdotes, little academic research exists on whether security technology actually works. In 2016, Heather Schwartz, associate director of RAND Education, that deployed sophisticated security technology. From entry control equipment to video surveillance to violence prediction technology and software that scans students鈥� social media profiles, she found, independent research was surprisingly scarce on products鈥� ability to prevent tragedies or mitigate risk. Ironically, when lawmakers approved the STOP Act, they from a post-Sandy Hook grant program that financed research on school safety.

鈥淚 thought it was concerning there was such a lack of evidence about forms of technology that seem to be widely used,鈥� Schwartz said.

Despite the dearth of research, efforts to harden schools are driving attention away from other interventions like mental health screenings, behavioral supports, or even gun control. In fact, some research has found heightened surveillance instills in students a feeling that their schools are unsafe, and that students in schools with several forms of visible surveillance, like cameras and metal detectors, had to drugs and fighting.

Meanwhile, civil rights groups and other critics have raised concerns about pervasive surveillance, which is to schools that serve high populations of students of color. The American Civil Liberties Union that facial recognition technology is 鈥渘otoriously inaccurate鈥� and could lead to students being punished for offenses they didn鈥檛 commit.

Security as 鈥榓 Way of Life鈥�

As school leaders across the country explore available security options, Dale Marsden, superintendent in San Bernardino, California, said the benefits of hardened schools are clear. But, he added, security equipment has its limits.

Safety efforts in San Bernardino intensified at North Park Elementary School last year, when a man went to his estranged wife鈥檚 special education classroom, killing her and a student before taking his own life. After the incident, the district sought input from parents, North Park teachers, emergency responders, security companies, and safety consultants that cost the district more than $100,000, Marsden said. The district to redesign the school and implement new security measures. Among the upgrades, he said, is a buzzer system that allows access to different parts of the building and a campus entry process that runs background checks on visitors. Nonetheless, he said, there鈥檚 no such thing as 鈥渁bsolute safety.鈥�

鈥淚f a shooter is intent on coming into a campus and you have a visitor control system, it sounds harsh, but someone can take out the visitor control system,鈥� said Marsden, an Air Force veteran who specialized in security. 鈥淐an some of those things slow down or prevent? Yes. Can you have absolute safety? No.鈥�

Although Marsden said cost is a major roadblock for districts considering new security initiatives, Eckersley of Allegion said educators get too 鈥渨rapped up about the money.鈥� He pointed to the Partner Alliance鈥檚 鈥渢iered鈥� guidelines that encourage districts to start with basic infrastructure and work their way up to the Cadillac of school safety plans. Though the recommendations don鈥檛 push specific brands, districts that opt to implement the guidelines would be in for a major monetary investment.

Relying on costs from the recent security upgrades in Littleton, the  it would cost a district about $170,000 per high school to implement the most basic tier, bringing the price tag to an estimated $11 billion for all campuses across the country. For a district to implement the most sophisticated security systems outlined by the group, it鈥檇 cost an estimated $540,000 per high school, or nearly $36 billion at all schools nationwide.

Once schools reach that top level 鈥� with electronic gates, technology that scans license plates, bullet-resistant glass, and other equipment 鈥� a Partner Alliance PowerPoint slide said that 鈥渟ecurity is no longer a project 鈥� it is a way of life.鈥�