A new collaborative effort involving the Vigo County School Corp., city, county and law enforcement will make it easier for students and families to report bullying, threats, safety issues or mental health concerns.
The initiative, called Be S.A.F.E., will put several reporting resources in one place; it’s currently available on the VCSC website at https://web.vigoschools.org/news/safe/ and will eventually be housed on city, county, Terre Haute police and sheriff’s sites as well.
S.A.F.E., which stands for or Students and Families Everywhere, highlights resources for mental health, bullying, campus/school security, crime, social media threats and more.
“What we’re trying to do is coalesce some resources into one spot,” said Tom Balitewicz, interim VCSC superintendent. “This is about keeping our children safe, more than anything.”
It is not a re-invention of the wheel, he said during a news conference Thursday in the Terre Haute Police Department training room. Various reporting tools already exist. “We want to put them all on one icon on a website.”
The district has worked with RJL Solutions in developing Be S.A.F.E.
Currently, the initiative highlights four resources:
•STOPit: the Vigo County School Corp. platform to report any issues students or parents witness or suspect on or off school campuses.
•VCSC Bullying Report form.
•Crime Stoppers: the Vigo County Sheriff’s Office system for tracking reported crime related activity throughout the county.
•988: the National Suicide Prevention Hotline.
Students can use their Chromebooks to access Be S.A.F.E through the district website.
Later this month, the school district will educate students to make them them aware of the new resource and feel comfortable using it, Balitewicz said.
Others speaking Thursday included Mayor Duke Bennett, Vigo County commissioner Mike Morris, city police chief Shawn Keen, Sheriff John Plasse and Prosecutor Terry Modesitt.
“We’re trying to makes it easier for people to report things and make our community and kids safer,” Plasse said.
The district already has the Stop It app and a bullying reporting app, both anonymous, which are installed on all student Chromebooks.
Talks about the collaboration began several months ago, according to Mayor Bennett, when former Superintendent Rob Haworth raised concerns about safety issues and threats in the schools and asked for suggestions on what could be done in response.
Be S.A.F.E. is a result of those discussions.
It aims “to link these kids to the proper resources they need,” Bennett said. Callers can maintain confidentiality and not have to worry about repercussions.
Be S.A.F.E. can be used by students not only to report bullying or threats, but also if they are experiencing a mental health crisis or addictions issue, he said. The new program makes it easy for students to report and respective officials to respond.
One of the city’s goals is promoting quality of life, and personal safety is a critical component, Bennett said.
“We hear stuff in the news every day that is just horrible. We don’t want those things to happen here,” Bennett said. “If we can head something off, that’s a good thing.”
Balitewicz, a former principal, director of students services and now interim superintendent, said he has had to deal with tragic situations involving students and families. “We want to do everything we can to help students … to report things. We don’t want more tragedies,” he said.
Using the new resource, students or adults “can report something 24/7 and those reports will either come to us or law enforcement, depending on the resource used,” Balitewicz said. With STOPit, schools get those reports directly, and they can investigate, take action or offer assistance.
The district has had both STOPit and the bullying report form for more than one year.
With Be S.A.F.E., “Everything is right there. They don’t have to search for something,” Balitewicz said “We just want to make it accessible.”
He added, “We want to make sure students are able to report things and know they should report things, and they know there will be a response when they do.”
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