An anonymous “say something” tip line has been shown to work to catch gun threats in schools, before it can escalate to violence.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Schools across the country are using anonymous tip lines to prevent gun violence, and now a new study in the journal Pediatrics finds that the line in one state is successfully catching these kinds of threats. Doing so is critical. Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children and teens in the U.S. That has been the case since 2020, when guns surpassed car accidents. NPR’s Rhitu Chatterjee has this report, which does mention suicide.
RHITU CHATTERJEE, BYLINE: This particular tip line is being used across 23 states. It’s called the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System. It trains students and school staff to identify signs of potential violence and self-harm, and then students can anonymously report a potential threat through an app, a phone number or a website. Elyse Thulin is at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention.
ELYSE THULIN: Youth have a particularly important viewpoint. They often know much more than the adults do about what’s going on in their, you know, relationships and their school communities.
CHATTERJEE: So they’re often the first to notice a concerning behavior or potential threat. Thulin says, when a student reports something to the tip line, it goes to the Sandy Hook Crisis Center, where crisis counselors try to engage with the tipster.
THULIN: These individuals are trained to live-triage the tips. One very cool thing about the Say Something Anonymous Report System is that teens can actually have a conversation with a crisis center counselor live.
CHATTERJEE: The counselors gauge the nature of the threat and loop in school staff. If the threat seems urgent, then they also connect with local law enforcement. Thulin and her colleagues analyzed the system in one southeastern state, North Carolina, which has the…
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