A step beyond the campus.

Flagler County officials understandably don’t want to provide details about all the security measures employed to keep schools safe. Doing so might be akin to handing a blueprint to an architect of violence.

But that secrecy shouldn’t apply to questions of contracting with a company that scans social media posts in the community for threatening language.

Today, School Board members will meet in a closed session with a representative of Social Sentinel, a Vermont company that monitors social media for words and phrases that could signal potential threats. At its regular meeting this evening, the board could vote on whether to enter into an $18,500-a-year contract with Social Sentinel, which would be paid using revenue from the district’s half-penny sales tax earmarked for school technology needs.

When voters approved that tax increase in 2002, they undoubtedly thought in terms of modernizing classroom instruction, not using artificial intelligence to snoop on online posters.

The News-Journal’s Shaun Ryan reports that the company maintains a list of “hundreds of thousands” of phrases, keywords, hashtags, emojis and keyword combinations that may relate to possible threats of violence, suicide, self-harm or criminal activity. If the AI flags something, it alerts school or law enforcement officials to investigate.

(READ: Flagler schools may unleash social media watchdog)

The process has a creepy, Big Brother is watching you, “Minority Report” pre-crime vibe to it. However, the software scans only publicly available posts. Posts made on private accounts or private messages are not seen. So that tamps down concerns about privacy violations. If anything, it reinforces the growing realization not to make too much personal information publicly available on social media, and to be cautious about what you post online. Disturbing words and images not only can offend friends, family members, and employers, but now they can be swept up by government-contracted security software, earning the poster a knock on the door from authorities.

Nevertheless, employing such means as part of a district-wide school security program is a major step beyond making campuses safer for students and faculty. That should spark public debate about whether that direction is both wanted and warranted, and about Social Sentinel’s costs and effectiveness.

Although the Parkland shooter had posted alarming photos and messages about becoming a school shooter on Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube, most mass murderers do not publicly post their plans on social media, but rather on private accounts or anonymously on other platforms.

Social Sentinel is one of a growing number of companies that employ social media management software, or SMMS, and the technology remains a work in progress. It’s easy to identify certain words that might raise yellow or red flags, but the challenge is to evaluate them in context. “Bomb” can refer to an explosive, or it can be an adjective to describe how a student did on his calculus midterm.

Will Flagler County school officials — and taxpayers — know how well Social Sentinel is working? Whether it under-identifies or over-indentifies potential threats? What has been other clients’ experiences? Virginia Commonwealth University used the program from September 2015 to August 2017, then decided not to renew the contract with Social Sentinel and reportedly has not contracted with similar vendors.

The public needs to be made aware of all the issues surrounding Social Sentinel and be given ample opportunity to weigh in before a decision is made. The Flagler County School Board should refrain from voting today until the issue has been thoroughly vetted publicly.