Education Leaders Launch Statewide System To Report School Threats

North Carolina's public schools have a new tool to help keep their campuses safe. The system was created by several family members who lost loved ones in the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting.

State Superintendent Mark Johnson says the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System will launch during the 2019-20 school year. It's designed to prevent school violence and will be available in middle and high schools.

“Students play a critical role in helping to keep schools safe,” Johnson says. “They may see and hear concerns that adults need to know about but may be reluctant to report it.”

Tips can be sent in through an app or website or a phone hotline.

A crisis center will be staffed with trained counselors 24/7 to assess and categorize the information. It will be delivered to school officials and in some cases law enforcement.

The nonprofit group known as Sandy Hook Promise will partner with schools across North Carolina to help train students and teachers on how to identify signs of a potentially troubled individual and how to properly report those concerns.

“With these comprehensive violence prevention systems in place, North Carolina schools will be safer, protecting millions of lives and empowering youth to be upstanders in their communities," says Nicole Hockley, co-founder and managing director of Sandy Hook Promise, and mother of Dylan, who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy.

The state Department of Public Instruction piloted a reporting app a few years ago in a handful of schools. In that pilot year, the center received tips related to bullying (39 percent), danger (25 percent), drugs (24 percent), weapons (5 percent), fighting (5 percent), and underage drinking (2 percent).

In 2018, the North Carolina General Assembly included development of a statewide app in the 2018-19 budget bill.

More than 5,100 schools nationwide are currently using Sandy Hook Promise's anonymous reporting system. North Carolina will be the second statewide partnership for the program.

Pennsylvania began using the system in January.

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