Fremont Public Schools is launching Safe2Help, an anonymous reporting program for students and parents.
The program, in the form of a smartphone app, allows students to anonymously report problems within schools that can range from violence and drugs to the less severe, but nonetheless important, reports.
It will launch March 21 across the district.
“They (students) know a lot of things we don’t,” said Kevin Kavan, FPS district security coordinator. “I think we’ve done a good job at saying ‘If you see something, say something’ but I think we need to give them something else.”
Kavan cited other benefits of the app.
“Over time, we realized that this can be used to not only report violent situations, but kids would report less severe things. Things that we know could turn into more severe actions,” Kavan said.
The system already has had trial runs in different districts across different states, with Colorado being the heaviest user of the system.
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Statistics from Colorado districts show some of the most common reports the app receives.
The most common reports include suicidal thoughts or tendencies, bullying and cyberbullying along with drugs.
For Colorado districts, they used the P3 Campus system, a similar system to Safe2Help
P3 Campus showed that its most popular time for reports was 9 p.m., much later than when school counselors and teachers would be available to talk with students, which is another reason the district feels an anonymous reporting app is viable.
The system will also incorporate a “vetting” system.
Reports will first be routed to consultants at Boys Town, then feedback any relevant information to the school district, police department or both, depending on the severity and context of the reports.
