Archive for the ‘SchoolTipline News’ Category
Times-News Article
“Before 21st-century technology entered the education landscape, students faced the prospect of walking down to the principal or counselor’s office to report bullying.
Justin and Angela Heider, owners of Justin Heider Flooring in Twin Falls, donated $3,000 so that Canyon Ridge High School students can access SchoolTipline for the upcoming school year.
SchoolTipline, based in Provo, Utah, offers a third-party service that forwards text messages and e-mails from students on to principals and other educators.
“What we’ve found is students feel very comfortable sending out text messages or getting online and sending an e-mail knowing it’s anonymous,” said Kyle Aldous, spokesman for SchoolTipline.”
American Fork Teacher Has New Assignment
“With a master’s degree in school administration, Cole Kelley could have gone almost anywhere. The trouble is he didn’t want to.
After teaching two years at American Fork High School, he knew that was where he wanted to stay. He is fulfilling many of the duties of an assistant principal, without the title. He is a TAA, Teacher on Administrative Assignment………..
His roles include working with the sophomore class and English as a second language students and supervising some extracurricular activities, fundraising, Keys to Success, student discipline, technology, text books, school safety and the new School Tipline.
With that tipline program, students, parents and others may anonymously report problems or concerns they have related to the school. The company Web site shows an example of a text message about a drug deal in a school parking lot. In addition to anonymity, it is designed for quick response. Kelley said he had high hopes for the service.”
(Click here for the full article)
Has Zero Tolerance Gone Too Far?
When “zero-tolerance” policies in Florida run amok:
A 15-year-old Vero Beach High School student is suspended for five days for throwing “Flubber” at another student.
A 14-year-old Martin County High School student is suspended for 10 days for drawing a cartoon as a joke that school officials claimed was a threat against a teacher.
The state Legislature began mandating strict zero-tolerance policies related to weapons, drugs, alcohol and violence in the wake of highly publicized, deadly violence in schools across the nation.
However, the policies sometimes didn’t differentiate among the levels of unauthorized activities, thereby linking serious criminal activity with simple mistakes and sending good students into the state’s juvenile justice system.
Because of overzealous enforcers in schools and courts, some students carried around a scarlet letter into adulthood.
Last year, 21,000 Florida students were referred to juvenile justice authorities because of school-related offenses.
To read full article click here.
Taking a stand against school violence is necessary, however, school officials need to educate students about what is and isn’t tolerated rather than punish students after they cross the line. Most importantly, students need to understand why certain behaviors are not permissible.
SchoolTipline supports all efforts to engage students in becoming the eyes and ears for school administrators. By utilizing the SchoolTipline program, students can notify school officials of real threats in real time.
SchoolTipline featured in Record Herald
Social network site combats bullying
By RYAN CARTER
Staff Writer
Bullying can take many forms- physical abuse, name calling, tormenting, etc.
And now, it has even expanded to the Internet as bullies use social networking sites and email to make threats. Even cell phone calls and texting can become vicious. Sometimes, the effects can be devastating as suicide among those who are bullied has become more and more commonplace across the country.
But there are methods to prevent bullying. Research has shown that the best way to improve the safety climate of a school is to create an open culture of communication, said Kyle Aldous, an administrator for http://schooltipline.com, a national website created to break up harassment and settle disagreements and threats in a peaceful manner at schools around the nation.
(Click here for the full article)
SchoolTipline Featured in OC Register
“In recent years, pictures of smiling teens who took their own lives have been plastered across newspapers and television screens nationwide – their parents naming bullying as the culprit responsible for their child’s death.
The Mendez family of Orange County recently filed a $3 million lawsuit against the Capistrano Unified School District saying their son, Daniel, 16, of San Clemente High School, killed himself May 1 because of extreme bullying.
“Everything I read in that story is what is happening to my son, all the same signs are there,” Raminfard said. “I do not want to see my son’s picture end up in the paper like that.”
There are groups parents can seek out to help with bullying if they feel their schools are not taking the issue seriously.
SchoolTipline is an anonymous service for students and parents to report potential threat or bully attacks via the group’s Web site or a text message. After receiving a report, School Tip Line immediately notifies school officials and follows up on progress.
The service is for students who want to report school violence but are afraid to step forward.”
(Click here for the full article)
SchoolTipline Featured on KESQ.com
Website Allows Students to Log Out of Harassment
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By Elyse Miller, News Channel 3 Reporter
emiller@kesq.com
Bullying is something most people have experienced — the name calling, physical abuse and tormenting. Often students don’t report it, because they’re afraid of the repercussions. Now, there is a website helping students log out of the harrassment.
From the playground and classroom to the internet and cell phones, the bullying field is growing and becoming more vicious. The effects reach beyond the physical abuse. It strikes down confidence and self-worth, causing students to become depressed, skip school, drop out or worse.
“It is a fairly common occurrence for students to commit suicide because of bullying,” says Justin Bergener, creator ofSchooltipline.com.
Schooltipline.com is breaking up harrassment, settling disagreements, and threats at schools around the nation.
“There are a lot of students and parents looking for somewhere to turn to and they’re not finding it at school,” says Bergener.
“A lot of kids are afraid to come forward, my daughter was,” says parent Tracey Martin.
Through the website, students, teachers, and counselors work through the problems anonymously.
“It’s an icebreaker for students to start talking about these things,” says Bergener.
Here’s how it works: go to schooltipline.com and check if your school participates. If they’re not on the site, invite them.
Once the school is on, students login and select the nature of the report. Issues range from weapons, drugs and fights to cheating. Next, students can type in an anonymous message which goes directly to the school leaders.
“Based on wether it’s bullying or drugs, it can be routed to specific people in the school,” says Bergener.
As the site grows in popularity, creators are finding easier ways to end harrassment fast. Now, students can send anonymous text messages to contact help immediately.
“It’s an early warning when something is happening that is in violation of school policy,” says Bergener.
With a quick tip and fast action school leaders can stop fights, abuse, danger and potentially saves lives.
“I truly believe prevention is the key,” says Bergener.
Student Focus Group Results
Researched and written by:
Betty Y. Ashbaker, Ph.D & Noemi E. Olsen, B.S. Graduate Research Assistant
Department of Counseling Psychology and Special Education Brigham Young University
Maren K. McCombs - Teacher Candidate Department of English Education
Brigham Young University
Marvi A. Villamizar, B.S. - Department of Psychology Brigham Young University
This is a selection of a 9 page report.
Background:
Preventing school violence will not be successful until the responsibility for reporting is placed on the shoulders of the students who really know what is happening (Stone & Isaacs, 2002). Students are the eyes and ears of the school. They see the bullying that happens in the hallways and bathrooms where teachers are not supervising. In most cases, students have known ahead of time that acts of school violence were going to occur, and yet have not told any adults. Unnever and Cornell (2004) found that perceptions supporting bullying were pervasive across middle schools and the general student populations. For example, most students perceived that other students almost never tried to prevent bullying (40%), once in a while tried to prevent bullying (24%), or sometimes tried to report bullying (19%), with only a small proportion responding often or almost always trying to report bullying (15%). It is essential for schools and administrators to tap into the students’ knowledge of what happens in regards to bullying.
Results:
Participants were asked what would keep them from reporting an incident such as bullying. Seven (or nearly 33%) of participants reported that peer pressure would keep them from reporting, Five (24%) reported fear of facing the bully, three (nearly 14%) said they do not know to whom they must report, and two (10%) said they do not know where and how to report. An additional four (almost 19%) gave other responses including “just not wanting to report itnone of the above,” and “At our school the officer is rude and annoying so I don’t like to tell him anything.”
The vast majority of the students 20 (95%) said they would use SchoolTipline to report. Of that number four (20%) said “yes” but added no explanatory comment, another four said “yes” and explained, “because the website provides anonymity”, six said, “Yes, because the website works”, three (15%) said “Yes, because it will get the bully into trouble”, and three (15%) gave other responses. The one student who said he/she would not use the website gave no further reason for that response.
Download the full report below.
Bye bye Beta!!!
We dropped the beta from our logo this week! Thank you to all the schools that have provided feedback and took the courage to jump on early. We’ve learned alot in the last few years through research, implementation and user cases. As always we will continue to welcome feedback and improve features, but this marks an important milestone of solid usability and tested features.
Children Without A Voice USA
Founded in 2007, Children Without A Voice USA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that is dedicated to ending the pervasive problem of child abuse in America.
Schooltipline applauds founder Lin Seahorn for her active involvement in child advocacy. Seahorn has served on boards, headed up many fundraisers and drives, and been an active child advocate for over 25 years.
Read the rest of this entry »
Schooltipline Teams up with SageCreek Partners
Founded in 2007, SchoolTipline, Inc. is a software company focused on fostering school climates of open communication and learning. SchoolTipline provides technologies that empower students and administrators with information to improve their schools.
Students are bullied everyday in school. They need help and they will communicate with teachers and administrators if they can do so without experiencing increased victimization from the bully. Research has shown that students will use an anonymous, online system to report bullying and other problems. SchoolTipline makes this kind of reporting possible, and thus hopes to increase the number of student reports on incidents such as bullying.
SchoolTipline allows students to feel safe reporting incidents such as school violence. Students will break down the culture of silence and become the eyes and ears of safety when empowered with anonymous communication and the ability to report using methods they prefer such as the Web or text message.
“Our biggest reason for getting involved with SageCreek Partners is that they have years of experience in helping smaller companies move to the next level,” said Justin Bergener, SchoolTipLine CEO. “They provide mentor capital, a new concept that is unmatched by anyone else. They will help us as we strive to have a wider national reach.”
http://sagecreekpartners.com/2009/04/schooltipline-works-with-sagec.php
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