Sandy Hook Promise to Partner with the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General to Roll Out Safe2Say Something Anonymous Reporting System to Schools Statewide

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Oct 01, 2018, 16:10 ET

NEWTOWN, Conn., Oct. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Sandy Hook Promise and the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General are proud to announce that they are partnering to roll out the Safe2Say Something Anonymous Reporting System. Through this partnership, Sandy Hook Promise will help the Office of Attorney General onboard over 500 school districts across the state.

The Safe2Say Something Anonymous Reporting System allows individuals to submit secure and anonymous safety concerns to help identify and intervene when unsafe and/or harmful behaviors take place. The tips can be submitted via the app, online, or a dedicated hotline, and each tip is reviewed by the Safe2Say Something call center housed in the Office of Attorney General. The call center will process and refer each tip to the appropriate school teams and law enforcement according to the level of threat.

"Pennsylvania students deserve a safe place to learn, free from the threat of violence from classmates or other individuals," said Attorney General Josh Shapiro. "I'm proud my office was entrusted by the legislature to run this new program focused on school safety. Working together with Sandy Hook Promise, we can make Pennsylvania safer for families, teachers and, most importantly, our students."

This partnership is the first of its kind where Sandy Hook Promise is providing its expertise from its proven Anonymous Reporting System at a state-wide level. While Sandy Hook Promise is partnering with school districts across the country to bring this life-saving program to individual school districts, Pennsylvania represents the first time this will be done for all districts across the entire state, showing a strong commitment to empowering students to report their concerns and intervene before a crisis occurs.

"We are proud to work with the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General to provide students with our comprehensive violence prevention training and anonymous reporting system. We know that early prevention programs like ours are proven to stop violence before it starts. With this launch, we will train students across the state how to recognize at-risk behaviors and take action to help someone else by submitting a tip anonymously. With Safe2Say Something, students and parents can be confident that the Attorney General's call center will immediately process all tips and refer them on to school teams and local law enforcement, so no one falls through the cracks. Safe2Say Something will save lives and help so many Pennsylvania students to stay safe and healthy," said Nicole Hockley, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Sandy Hook Promise and mother to Dylan, killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

It has been reported that 80% of school shooters and 70% of individuals who completed suicides told someone of their violent plans prior to taking action - yet no interventions were made. SHP has tirelessly worked to solve this problem for the past three years through its four evidenced-based Know the Signs programs, provided at no cost to schools nationwide.

To date, Sandy Hook Promise has trained more than 3.5 million students and adults, including teachers, administrators, and law enforcement officials in all 50 states in its Know the Signs Programs. As a result, SHP has helped to intervene on multiple threats - including school shooting plots, suicides, and other threats of violence, as well as helping to reduce bullying and assisting hundreds of individuals to get mental health assistance.

The Safe2Say Something system will be overseen and operated by the Office of Attorney General with the expertise and guidance of Sandy Hook Promise, a national leader in the school safety space. Sandy Hook Promise provides overall training of Safe2Say Something to school districts and students. SHP pays for 100% of the costs to train and sustain the program in each school district. Together, Sandy Hook Promise and the Office of Attorney General will provide:

Training for all students, staff, and parents in each school districts on the Safe2Say Something Anonymous Reporting System
24/7 Crisis Center, app, telephone and mobile/web-based setup and ongoing management housed in the Office of Attorney General
"Backroom" training and management of submissions
Triage for all calls, app, mobile/web-based submissions
Routing of all tips to school officials and/or law enforcement, based on severity of threat
Set-up of Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE) Promise clubs to embed the Safe2Say Something Anonymous Reporting System into the fabric and culture of schools to continuously raise awareness and empower students to act
Collateral and awareness materials (posters, floor stickers, etc.) to remind students of the program and contact information

About Sandy Hook Promise: Sandy Hook Promise (SHP) is a national, nonprofit organization based in Newtown, Connecticut. SHP is led by several family members whose loved ones were killed in the tragic mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012. SHP's mission is to prevent gun violence (and other forms of violence and victimization) BEFORE it happens by educating and mobilizing youth and adults to identify, intervene and get help for at-risk individuals. SHP is a moderate, above-the-politics organization that supports sensible program and policy solutions that address the "human-side" of gun violence by preventing individuals from ever getting to the point of picking up a firearm to hurt themselves or others. Our words, actions and impact nationwide are intended to honor all victims of gun violence by turning our tragedy into a moment of transformation.

For more information, visit www.sandyhookpromise.org or call 203-304-9780.

SOURCE Sandy Hook Promise