This program is so smart, it brought tears to my eyes. Among other things, with all the school shootings, it gives kids an easy way to report it if they hear about something in the making or if another student scares them, or if they are worried about someone.
It should be a lot more than one in four!
Safe2Help was written into State Law this year. So far only 202 of the state’s 850+ school districts have signed up for the program.
A couple of screen caps:
I wondered what Quick Exit (in the menu) did – it immediately exits the program. It’s on every page, visible all the time, so there’s no risk of anyone seeing you in the program if you don’t want them to know – how smart is that?
A bit of history.
This program appears to be modeled in part after SAFE2TELL COLORADO, which was created after Columbine.
Two school shooting incidents in 2018 opened the eyes of school administrators in Illinois.
One occurred in Parkland, Florida where 17 people were killed, and the other at Dixon High School where no one was injured. “The blessing for us is that there were no casualties and we got to learn from the situation,” said Jared Shaner, the Dixon High School Principal.
In 2021, Dixon and another district in Illinois joined a pilot to test Safe2Help Illinois, a program similar to the one in Colorado.
“It’s been a great program for us,” said Shaner.
He said it’s changed the way his students ask for help.
“When a student uses the Safe2Help app, we get an alert on our phone,” Shaner said. “There’s different categories of what a student may be contacting us about, and then we respond appropriately.”
I’m terrible with emojis and other visuals. I get that (in order) that’s a coach, a ref, a librarian, and some sort of clergy. Is that a teacher in the 4th spot?
Click on the image below to go to their website.
They have an image of a cell phone on the site, and it’s live, so all the tweets on the cell phone image are live, and if you click Follow on the phone image, and you are literally following them on twitter. (these are static images below, of course)
I have never seen that before – is that a thing, and I just haven’t noticed?
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What great things are happening in your blue state?
Any good things happening in your red state?
Open thread
Baud
Awesome. What’s the point of heightening the contradictions if you’re not going to crow about it when you do?
Almost Retired
Here in formerly-sunny California, Newsom signed a law penalizing Big Oil for price gouging, the first of its kind in the country. All Democrats voted for it, except for one Assembly member from Oil-and-McCarthy soaked Kern County/Bakersfield (California’s Texas).
Alison Rose
This is a great idea, and I also hope other states follow suit.
There are always good things happening in California. Most recently, Newsom signed the oil price gouging legislation into law. I don’t go anywhere so gas prices don’t matter to me, but I know it’s been a massive pain in the ass for a lot of people.
ETA LOL Almost Retired beat me to it. GMTA!
Alison Rose
@Almost Retired: “California’s Texas” is a good description of it. Of course, Texans would think we meant it as a compliment. Nope. Reminds me of when my friends were living for a few years in Riverside. They called it Rivertucky, and that was absolutely not said in praise.
rikyrah
This looks like a good program that will help children, which is a good thing.
FastEdD
What a great way for kids to get some help. I taught in the Dark Ages when cell phones were just starting. Admin couldn’t figure out whether to ban them or not. Kids would lose expensive phones and then we had to figure out who stole them. We had better things to do, like teaching. Admin finally came up with a school wide policy that teachers were to confiscate them. A colleague of mine named Marty warned a kid to put away his phone, kid did not, teacher took away the phone. Kid’s parents complained, kid claimed he was injured, Marty was arrested and put on administrative leave. Kid was lying, teacher’s job was restored, whole thing was a PITA. Now, of course, cell phones are considered a safety device and everyone has them. My kids would make videos of me doing stupid things and play them back over and over. I didn’t mind, I liked those kids.
Bill Hicks
I worry all sorts of marginalized kids will now get reported for saying something a little worrying and have their lives ruined. The whole “See something, say something” is a terrible idea, not to mention stupid. I see a wall, and carpet, and a window, and sky, and clouds and a cup, and my kitty, got to go snuggle.
trollhattan
@Alison Rose: A fascinating drive is north on I-5 over the Grapevine, then heading west on CA 166 towards the coast. You begin in irrigated farmland and then enter the Oil Patch, which is as brutally abused a chunk of land you’ll find in the state. Don’t miss the Lakeview Gusher historical monument!
My dentist grew up in Taft and yet is a completely normal person, so there’s that.
The Moar You Know
@Alison Rose: California red county praise tree:
Riverside is at least not San Bernardino, San Bernardino is at least not Kern, Kern is at least not Shasta.
And I am willing to entertain arguments that Kern and not Shasta belongs at the bottom, mainly because Shasta has no major towns and Kern does. I would not want to encounter law enforcement in either one.
trollhattan
@The Moar You Know: Kern has the added…benefit? of some of the nation’s worst air quality. At least Shasta has clean air outside of wildfire season. And a pretty mountain to gaze at. Probably doesn’t hit 110 either, but I don’t do winters anymore, myself and would never consider it for that reason alone.
Alison Rose
@trollhattan: I know it quite well. I used to have friends (and for a while a girlfriend) in San Diego and would go down there a lot, always taking I-5 so I could drive like a fuckin speed demon. I’d usually stop for food or whatnot in Lebec, a tiny little CDP right around the start of the Grapevine.
Alison Rose
@The Moar You Know: And none of them are Modoc, and Modoc wears that like a badge of honor. Fuckers.
trollhattan
@Alison Rose: There’s also space for a prison!
Guard: “Warden, we’ve had an escape.”
Everybody: “Bwa-ha-ha!”
Warden: “He’ll be back.”
IDK, maybe they could swim the aqueduct or something.
geg6
On Tuesday, I found it amusing that our wonderful new governor and his first lady hosted an Easter egg hunt for pre-schoolers at the Governor’s Residence. I wonder if that felt weird to them, being that they are Jewish. Another good thing he has in his budget proposal, instead of some sort of incentivizing tax credit for corporations, is a $2500 tax credit for any new teacher, nurse, police officer or trooper who get a new license or certification or who already hold a license and come to PA to work. We have a huge shortage of teachers, especially, in PA, so I hope it gets through the idiots in the state Senate.
meander
New Mexico’s Democratic governor signs bill to expand voting rights, “HB 4 was championed by Democratic lawmakers, and every voting Republican lawmaker in both chambers opposed it”
https://boltsmag.org/new-mexico-voting-rights-package/
surfk9
The City of Lodi just replaced a counsel member who was recently arrested for massive voter fraud. The district he represented is mostly hispanic and the most economically disadvantaged. The counsel did the right thing and chose the runner up in the previous election. He is hispanic and has lived there most of his life. When I first moved to Lodi, the counsel had four white guys and a Japanese guy. As of last night the counsel is a hispanic, a sikh a japanese guy a white woman and a white man. The counsel now looks exactly like the community. I am so proud of my community for moving in this direction.
kindness
@Almost Retired: Bakersfield is California’s Oklahoma. I have significant Okie in the extended family and every one of their ancestors came through Bakersfield when they first hit CA. Not to mention Okie Country Music legends that were based out of Bakersfield. So….while Texas has oil, it doesn’t have my people’s elders.
trollhattan
@surfk9: “Oh lord…” (Somebody needed to.)
That is positive. Up north a bit we have an utter mobster of a councilman who even slithered out of being caught not living in his district (or even the city), plus has numerous labor violations at his bidnez. Is he still on the council? Oh yes.
WaterGirl
I didn’t expect this thread to have many comments, but I thought it was important to help spread the word about this program in Illinois.
lowtechcyclist
@WaterGirl:
I need to contact my state legislators and see if we’ve got anything like that here in Maryland. If we don’t, we should.
surfk9
@trollhattan:
The guy here in Lodi was indicted for illegal gambling and racketeering before the election in 2020 and still got elected.
Any effort to recall your guy?