South Bound Brook School District Share Their Experience of Smoothwall Monitor
In our latest Q&A, we speak with Lenny Libitz, Chief Technology Officer at South Bound Brook School District in New Jersey as he speaks about his experiences of using Smoothwall Monitor.
Why did you decide to implement a digital monitoring solution?
Our students were having issues with other students. It was mainly happening on their devices and in their digital lives. We needed a tool that would help us document what was happening, as and when it happened. We needed the evidence but we also needed to understand the situation so we could get the right help to the students who needed it.
If students have no-one they can talk to at home, they will often use their keyboard to type out their feelings and frustrations. That’s their voice. That’s their outlet. Having Smoothwall Monitor allows us to help our most vulnerable students in the community and get them the assistance they need.
How did you gain the support of your colleagues for a monitoring technology to be used?
Our staff knew about monitoring technology. With our desire to use Smoothwall Monitor it was a case of showing them the software and how it captured incidents. We showed them how it grades alerts and what happens when an alert is so severe someone will actually call us, no matter what time of day or night.
With other solutions we have had to be on top of the alerts so we don’t miss anything. That meant going through tons of false positives. With Smoothwall Monitor, it has allowed us to step back a little. It shows us the students who need our assistance. We don’t need to go looking for them through hundreds of alerts.
I feel that without this technology, we could have missed a child that needed help, absolutely.
