There’s a new school safety initiative in Pa. How will it affect Centre County schools?

An anonymous reporting system for all schools in Pennsylvania called the Safe2Say Something tip line went live Monday, providing a way for students, teachers and community members to report threatening behavior that may endanger an individual or school institution.

The S2SS tipline was brought through a partnership with the state’s Office of the Attorney General and Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit organization that trains students and adults to look for signs of gun violence in order to prevent tragedies like the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012 that killed 20 children and six staff members. The new tipline fulfills requirements outlined in Act 44, the school safety and security bill passed by the state Legislature in 2018.

State College Area School District is working on implementing the tip line, which allows students and adults to use the S2SS app, website, or a dedicated hotline to report a tip, each of which is reviewed by the S2SS crisis center housed in the Office of Attorney General. The call center will process and refer each tip to the appropriate school crisis teams and law enforcement according to the level of the threat, said SCASD Assistant Superintendent Will Stout.

The SCASD crisis team is made up of Stout, Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Education Vernon Bock, State College Area High School Principal Curtis Johnson, Director of Student Services Jeanne Knouse and School Resource Officer Jon Aston.

Before Act 44 introduced the S2SS tip line, SCASD did not have any type of safe reporting tip line, said Stout, but they were looking at options.

The new S2SS tip line is just one part of combating concerning behavior in schools, he said.

“As I shared with our board, I don’t think anything takes the place of developing positive relationships with our students and staff,” Stout said.

But at no cost to the school district, the S2SS tip line could be a way for students and adults who don’t feel comfortable sharing in person to report concerning behavior like mental health issues, bullying, school violence or suicidal thoughts.

“If they’re (the state) able to work out the kinks, I think it could be a really good, really useful program,” Stout said.

SCASD will begin putting together resources to educate students, teachers and community members on how to use the new program through a one-hour training video.

At the Bald Eagle Area School District, Superintendent Jeff Miles said the new S2SS tip line would operate much like the current Safe School Helpline, which the district enrolled in last summer.

“Obviously (S2SS) is a way or a conduit, if you will, for people to share information,” said Miles. “It’s going to be positive.”

BEA will also train students through a one-hour video, and hopes to have the S2SS program rolled out in a month or so.

At BEA, the crisis team is made up of Miles, BEAHS Principal Jack Tobias, guidance counselor Marilee Close, Director of Elementary Education at Wingate Elementary Jim Orichosky and School Safety and Prevention Coordinator John Peters.

This story was originally published January 15, 2019 at 7:34 PM with the headline "There’s a new school safety initiative in Pa. How will it affect Centre County schools?."