>> SCHOOL DISTRICT
The Baldwin County School District announced a new anonymous way to report issues related to Baldwin County schools last week on The Baldwin Beat website.
The district has introduced Safe2SpeakUp to offer an online way to report issues related to students, staff, facilities and more in the school district. According to their press release, Safe2SpeakUp enables anyone to report concerns of student safety, life safety and general concerns to school administrators and district leaders through an anonymously encrypted system between submitters and administrators. Although, submitters can opt to reveal their identity.
According to the CrisisGo website (the company who owns Safe2SpeakUp) the service is a COPPA-compliant companion app primarily for users ages 18 and under. It was created to allow students to anonymously report bully-related activity and submit safety tips to their school’s safety team.
According to the CrisisGo website, “Sometimes students do not speak up when it comes to bullying, because they believe if someone knows they did, the problem will become worse. At CrisisGo, we understand these concerns and have developed the only mobile emergency response system that provides a student-safe app, Safe2SpeakUP.”
As outlined by The Baldwin Beat, anyone can submit an anonymous tip through the Safe2Speak mobile app, downloadable on the Apple App Store or from Google Play, or through a weblink. For the app, students should use their school account username and password to access the reporting form. Online, click the link available in The Baldwin Beat and submit as many individual entries as needed.
The reporting form is very detailed to allow the opportunity to submit a variety of different reports. The submitter will identify the location, type of concern, when the event occurred, who was involved, and a description of the event. These details are given through a range of selection tools and open text boxes for narrative responses. Submitters may also choose to submit video or photo evidence of an event. At the end of the report, a submitter can give their information to receive a response (either sending it anonymously or with their information visible) or can opt to submit the form without being contacted back. The form is available in both English and Spanish.
“We believe school safety is a shared responsibility, and having every student, staff and parent on board will help us to continue to keep our schools safe,” wrote Eric Jones in The Baldwin Beat. “We encourage you to talk to your child about the Safe2SpeakUP alert system.”
The Safe2SpeakUP alert system will be monitored between the hours of 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. during regular school days. Any reports submitted outside of these hours or during holidays will be responded to during the following normally scheduled school day.