Can AI Keep Students Safe Without Surveilling Them? | Bella Davis

From Cybertraps Podcast · 27:05

Show by Frederick Lane & Jethro Jones

About This Episode To spot harm on a student's device, a safety tool has to look at what the student does on it. That tension is at the center of this conversation with Bella Davis, founder and CEO of Monarch AI Technologies. Her privacy-first platform flags early signs of bullying, grooming, self-harm, threats of violence, and mental health concerns on school devices. She started building it after watching Mark Zuckerberg testify before Congress while parents sat behind him holding photos of their children. Jethro presses Bella on where safety ends and surveillance begins. She explains how Monarch keeps students anonymous, who sees an alert, and what happens next, and she shares a principal's story about a bullied student whose warning signs were sitting on a school Chromebook. Jethro talks about the years he spent as a principal chasing down reports, and admits he doesn't know the right answer. If you're weighing a monitoring tool for your school, this conversation gives you the questions to ask first. What You’ll Learn Why keyword alerts bury principals in reports, and how Monarch tries to flag only serious patternsHow Monarch keeps students anonymous: the company sees a device number, and only school leaders can unmask a studentWhat happens after a flag, from an early warning to a threat to a student's lifeWhy false positives decide whether your staff keep trusting an alert systemWhere safety ends and surveillance begins, and why Jethro still has concernsOne thing you can do this week: encourage families to cut back on devices at home Chapters 0:00 — Welcome to Transformative Principal0:34 — Meet Bella Davis and Monarch AI1:44 — Why Bella built a safety tool for schools3:18 — How Monarch handles student privacy6:38 — The workload problem with school alert systems9:21 — Where monitoring falls short12:21 — Why schools keep reacting to new technology14:37 — Safety or surveillance?17:14 — Why principals can't check every device20:34 — What happens when something is flagged21:42 — What data Monarch keeps23:04 — False positives and trust24:24 — How to connect with Monarch and what it costs25:28 — One thing principals can do this week Resources Monarch AI — Bella's student safety platform. The pilot is free right now; Bella expects it to cost about $10 per device once it scales.Bella Davis on LinkedIn — Connect with Bella, or email [email protected] to ask about a demo or a pilot.Heat Initiative — The child-protection group Bella mentions building a partnership with. We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL and Renaissance. IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:Simplify and streamline technologySave teachers’ timeReliably meet Tier 1 standardsImprove student performance on state assessments🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.Learn more about Renaissance: As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

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