Dr. Casey Wardynski

Huntsville City Schools Superintendent Dr. Casey Wardynski (The Huntsville Times file)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - A secret program to monitor students' online activities began quietly in Huntsville schools, following a phone call from the NSA, school officials say.

Huntsville schools Superintendent Casey Wardynski says the system began monitoring social media sites 18 months ago, after the National Security Agency tipped the school district to a student making violent threats on Facebook.

One of several former Huntsville students posing with a weapon on Facebook. Taken from system documents on the SAFe program. Face and name redacted by AL.com.

The NSA, a U.S. agency responsible for foreign intelligence, this week said it has no record of a call to Huntsville and does not make calls to school systems.

Regardless of how the program started, Huntsville City Schools began scanning Facebook and other sites for signs of gang activity, watching for photos of guns, photos of gang signs and threats of violence.

The Huntsville monitoring program is called SAFe, or Students Against Fear. School board members said they did not know about the program when contacted last week.

Internal documents explaining the program, obtained by AL.com, show examples of four different students posing on Facebook with handguns. None are on school grounds. Three are listed as expelled. One was referred for counseling.

Here's the school district's explanation of how the program got started:

About a year and half ago, Wardynski said, the NSA called Huntsville and reported a high school student had threatened on Facebook to injure a teacher.

Al Lankford, the city's longtime school security officer, told AL.com that he took the NSA phone call. He said security officers went to the high school and eventually searched the boy's car.

"We found a very good size knife and the student was expelled," said Wardynski, a former U.S. Army colonel appointed as superintendent in Huntsville in 2011.

NSA did not acknowledge placing such a call. "The National Security Agency has no record that it passed any information to the Huntsville school district, and the description of what supposedly occurred is inconsistent with NSA's practices," said Vanee Vines, public affairs specialist with the NSA, on Monday.

The NSA is focused on foreign intelligence. Vines said any information about a domestic safety issue would be sent to another federal agency, like the FBI. "Moreover, NSA does not make recommendations regarding school safety programs," said Vines via email.

"There was a foreign connection," said Wardynski, explaining why the NSA would contact Huntsville schools. He said the student in Huntsville had made the online threats while chatting online with a group that included an individual in Yemen.

He said the junior, who had been an A student, was placed in the boot camp Pinnacle program and later graduated. Wardynski declined to identify the school, but said the NSA call woke him to threats on social media.

Board members Topper Birney and Laurie McCaulley, contacted for this story last week, said they were unaware of the monitoring program and the board was not briefed. The city system web site contains no operational information on SAFe, but displays a logo and lists three staff members. Those include two security officers and consultant Chris McRae.

McRae's Linked-In profile lists him as a former FBI agent. His full bio lists him as a Montgomery police officer who joined the FBI and then worked as an investigator for TVA and later the Alabama Attorney General. He began consulting with Huntsville City Schools in January.

Wardynski said the city used the SAFe program to break up a gang called the Wolfpack, with six or seven members -- all related to each other through family -- in various schools. The students were expelled and placed in alternative school and boot camp programs.

Wardynski said Huntsville schools have seen sporadic gang recruitment and what he called "wannabe" gangs. "We don't want them to get into the major league," he said.

Acting on tips from students or teachers or others, schools security staff scour numerous social media sites, including Facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest, and more. They look for evidence of imminent threats to the schools or of gang activity. Wardysnki said the program has led to about a dozen expulsions each year so far and that security is actively monitoring social media at all times.

"People are very good about 'If you see something, say something,'" said Wardynski.

Wardysnki said the monitoring program is limited to threats against schools, and students are expelled from neighborhood schools and placed into alternative programs. Asked if school officials are also searching online for photos of alcohol, drugs and sex, Wardynski said: "None of that."

He said the focus is on gangs, threats of violence and threats of suicide. He said the security officials may contact city police, refer students for discipline or call in mental health services.

The school system materials obtained by AL.com are dated March 19, 2014. They list Director of Operation Jeff Wilson, Director of Student Support Services Cary Grant, Lankford and McRae.

The presentation explains the practice. For example, a student at Butler High was found to have posted a photo in July of 2013 and another in January of 2014 of himself holding a handgun and a cell phone.

SAFe officials found the pictures violated the city schools' Code of Conduct, section 3.11, barring: "Knowing possession of a weapon or anything designed, made or adapted or used for the purpose of inflicting death or serious physical injury." The SAFe monitors wrote the student was "posing in a menacing manner with what appear to be weapons."

They found six other photos showing the student flashing suspected gang signs. "SAFe recommendation: Consider (student) for expulsion."

While the student was not on school grounds, and may have been 18 years old in the second photo and therefore legally allowed to possess a handgun in Alabama, Wardynski said the program is meant to identify potential dangers to the school, and not necessarily code violations on school property.

The system's presentation materials contain photos posted by three black males and one black female. Some were already in alternative programs for skipping or drinking. Wardynski said the suspected students focused on by SAFe have been more racially balanced, and the program has identified students that could pose a safety threat in every high school in the city.

Former student posing online with two guns. From system documents.

The presentation also included photos of graffiti in school halls. "Gang graffiti has potential intelligence value to HCS Security and law enforcement," reads the presentation, which says principals are urged to photograph graffiti before having it removed.

Huntsville is not alone in the practice. A company called Geo Listening watches social media for school districts including Glendale, Calif. Their web site reads: "Geo Listening's unique monitoring service will process, analyze and report the adverse social media from publicly available student posts... We align our reporting criteria with existing school district procedures and board policy as they relate to student conduct & safety."

California bill AB 1442 is this month awaiting a signature by the governor. That law would require schools to notify parents of information-collecting practices, to allow students to look at what is collected and to guarantee the information will be destroyed after a student leaves the district.

Wardynski said Huntsville is likely doing more online than other Alabama school systems, and that the system has been monitoring students "ever since we got that call from the NSA."

Updated Sept. 26 at 1:25 p.m. to restore two paragraphs removed during editing. The city's monitoring program is based on tips from students and teachers. About a dozen students have been expelled each year so far.

(Follow-up as of Sept. 25: Huntsville student explains tweets that led to spying on students)