The largest school district in Hidalgo County has added another tool to keep students safe.

The largest school district in Hidalgo County has added another tool to keep students safe.

Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District officials say they will be able to pinpoint a school threat through social media.

Superintendent of Edinburg CISD, Dr. Rene Gutierrez, says last school year, they received more than 10 threats.

“When you have social media threats that we regularly get every year— people have their own devices then we don’t have any control on those devices,” said Dr. Gutierrez.

With a new proposed software, Dr. Gutierrez says he hopes the threats will stop.

“We are going to be able to monitor social media activity that is outside our control,” said Dr. Gutierrez.

Dr. Rodriguez says they will be targeting key words, such as bomb, threat or explosion—anything that could impose some sort of danger to their students or staff.

“We can single out some words, and be able to target and single in where that social media came from the device and the location that it came from our surrounding community,” said Dr. Gutierrez.

Edinburg residents say it could be an invasion of privacy, but for a good cause.

“To an extent, but to the same time, though, I can see where the protection side comes from,” said Richard Williams, an Edinburg resident.

The district that oversees 43 campuses says they’ve been successful at catching previous threats, but hope this can be another element to prevent school threats altogether.

“Our focus is to protect the students and the staff, and its not about invading their privacy, but about being proactive and be able to locate any kind of threat,” said Dr. Gutierrez.

The school district is still in the process of getting the software. They say their goal is to get it installed by the end of this year.