PREVENTION STRATEGIES All schools are required by the U.S. Department of Education’s
Office of Civil Rights to investigate bullying incidents and take immediate action to stop harassment and prevent its recurrence. If the school knows, or reasonably should know, about student harassment and fails to address its effects and take appropri- ate action, school officials are opening themselves up to federal investigations and expensive lawsuits. It is critical for school dis- tricts to implement comprehensive policies and procedures for identifying, reporting, investigating and responding to incidents of bullying and harassment. Several Midwest schools, including Tulsa (Okla.) Public
Schools, are taking proactive action to empower their students, personnel, parents and others with the ability to report incidents (anonymously or non-anonymously). Tese schools are using new innovative incident management
and threat assessment tools to encourage students, teachers, staff and others in their school community to confidentially and anonymously report bullying or other potentially harmful stu- dent safety concerns. In addition to bullying and cyber-bullying, an incident management system allows for the anonymous re- porting of weapons possession, drug/alcohol use, harassment or intimidation, school vandalism, physical assault, threats of vio- lence, suicide risk, abuse and other incidents.
REPLACING THE STATUS QUO A comprehensive incident management system ensures all in-
cident reports are tracked, documented and responded to in a proactive manner. With a Web-based platform, school adminis- trators can access on-demand reporting to see if/when reports are made, when team members received and acknowledged each report, and what steps were taken to address the report. A comprehensive platform will ensure an incident report (and
videos, screenshots, etc.) gets to the right people immediately so they can investigate, intervene and prevent incidents before they lead to tragedy or go viral, ending in expensive costs (legal, reputation, media, parent outrage, stress, investigations, fines, etc.) that could have been prevented. Innovative platforms are replacing traditional incident report-
ing processes and programs and automating what was once a labor-intensive and expensive manual process of documenta- tion. Team members collaborate through the platform to share ongoing findings and help connect all the dots needed to ensure a safe and responsive approach. Te ability to load mandated policy, training, updates to process or procedure, etc., make this approach a gold mine for districts trying to cut costs. Schools can be more efficient in their response, more collaborative in inter- ventions and investigations, and more accountable to students and their families. ■
Katie Johnson is the director of client services and marketing for Awareity, a provider of risk management, incident reporting and prevention platforms. To learn more, visit
www.awareity.com or
www.tipsprevent.com.
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