NC superintendent announces school safety tip line, partnership with Sandy Hook group

North Carolina Superintendent Mark Johnson announced a partnership on Thursday with Sandy Hook Promise to provide a statewide tip line for people to anonymously report school safety issues at middle and high schools across the state.

The “Say Something Anonymous Reporting System” will launch during the 2019-20 school year. More than 5,100 schools nationwide are using the service. North Carolina will be the second statewide partnership for Sandy Hook Promise. Pennsylvania began using the program in January.

"Students play a critical role in helping to keep schools safe," Johnson said. "They may see and hear concerns that adults need to know about but may be reluctant to report it. With the Say Something program, middle and high school students will better understand what warning signs to look for and when and how to report important tips through an app. Making this app available will be an important part of our efforts to make schools safer."

The school safety program will also teach students, teachers and administrators how to recognize the signs and signals of those who may be at risk of hurting themselves or others and how to anonymously report the information through the mobile tip app, the website or the telephone crisis hotline.

Training will be provided not only for educators, but also for law enforcement agencies. The Sandy Hook Promise team and a DPI School Safety Team will be reaching out to school leadership over the next several weeks to provide information about implementation and training.

A crisis center staffed 24/7 by trained counselors will triage, categorize and deliver tip information. Tips will be categorized as either “life safety” or “non-life safety” based on the incident and information the school-based teams provide. The Crisis Center will notify school-based representatives after hours when tips are life threatening and, in cases of imminent threat, contact local 911 dispatch.

"We are proud and eager to work with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction to train students across the state to 'know the signs' of potential violence and report them to a trusted adult via the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System," said 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. "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."

The North Carolina Center for Safer Schools, part of the Department of Public Instruction, piloted an app in five school districts in 2015 and 2016. In that pilot, 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.

Sandy Hook Promise is a national nonprofit organization based in Newtown, Conn., and led by several family members whose loved ones were killed in the tragic mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012.