Starting this school year, AISD has launched a new online reporting system, Safe Space. It’s designed for students to have a way to anonymously report information if they feel unsafe, if someone else needs help, or if something just doesn’t seem right.
“I think that even if it helps one kid, or one case, then it’s purposeful,” Assistant Principal Octavio Angel said. “This program isn’t about getting people in trouble; it’s about keeping people safe. It’s not about surveillance, it’s about support.”
Students may report bullying, harassment, racism, someone threatening to hurt themselves or others, someone talking about fighting, a suspected weapon on campus, unwanted attention, mental health or personal struggles, or gang activity, drug use, or vandalism. AISD partnered with an online safety management program, Gaggle, to ensure that there was 24/7 monitoring by trained professionals, according to Angel.
“So, if the concern is urgent, life-threatening, it immediately escalates to law enforcement or school administrators for an emergency response,” Angel said. “And those are like extreme cases, but if it’s not urgent, it’ll get routed to the proper AISD staff.
This program is a direct and quicker way for students to report something, so that if something happens over the weekend, they don’t have to wait until Monday.
When filing a report on Safe Space, a student can include the school where it happened, if they’re a student or staff member, grade level, what happened, where, if there are any witnesses, and students may add contact information if they would like. Senior Alison Milla feels that may open the door to a bunch of false reports.
“I feel like people might use it to report people who aren’t even doing anything,” Milla said. “The way that you perceive things definitely matters a lot, and people might just report someone just because they don’t like that person. I do hope that this program will allow people to report stuff without feeling judged by other people because it’s anonymous.”
According to Angel, AISD reviews every system and program it’s implemented. Sometimes the district will do half- year reviews and so Angel feels that AISD could provide some data next semester about how the program has been working. While Safe Space has been sent out through Bowie’s newsletters, senior Amaya Boehman feels that the school could do a better job sharing this resource.
“They could put posters around the school, and they could announce it on the announcements, or maybe on the back of the IDs,” Boehman said. “I would hope that a program like this would remove the fear around reporting bullying, because it’s really important to report the bullying so that it can be stopped, and hopefully it will make bullying less prevalent in our school and make all the kids feel safe and protected.” STORY BY Katie Grumet
