News & Events
Safe Schools Louisiana Announces 2022 Fall Semester Stats Ahead of Holiday Break
December 16, 2022
Safe Schools Louisiana Announces 2022 Fall Semester Stats Ahead of Holiday Break
NEW ORLEANS – For its third and final statistical release of the 2022 school year, the Safe Schools Louisiana Anonymous Reporting Program is providing an overview of anonymous tip data to encourage important conversations about student health over the holiday break and provide an opportunity for school administrators to intervene, learn, and course-correct prior to the spring school semester. The Safe Schools LA app and program are a complimentary resource for school communities that provide students the ability to anonymously communicate about a pressing school, criminal, or mental health concern.
Safe Schools LA, a statewide program managed by Crimestoppers, Inc., that safeguards over 250,000 students across the state through a free anonymous reporting platform, examined the overall tip content and categorization of anonymous tips for the summer and fall months of the 2022 school year (Dates: June 1 – December 9). Due to the stressors placed on Louisiana children in recent years by pandemics, crime trends, the Uvalde school shooting, and further environmental factors, the administrative team supporting the app shares its findings for the benefit of students, parents, and faculty to provide the safest environment for learning.
Additionally, the Safe Schools team found it appropriate to celebrate the school administrations who took the most active role in promoting the anonymous reporting availability and their involvement with incident interventions. This semester’s “Most Engaged Safe School” is Slaughter Community Charter School in East Feliciana Parish. Their efforts to remove bullying from their campus are truly commendable and their administration’s involvement in the lives of their students was palpable upon a visit by the Safe Schools LA team. (Their outreach efforts can be viewed here.)
This semester’s “Excellence in Student Mental Health” recognition was given to Vermilion Parish Schools who responded within minutes after notification through a tip that a student was discussing self-harm. Within minutes of the start of school, the multi-disciplinary intervention team located the student and provided a level of care that may have saved the life of that student. Both schools being recognized are new additions to the Safe Schools LA program this year. By showcasing their efforts, the Safe Schools LA organization hopes to create dialogue between school districts for best practices. Congratulations Slaughter Community Charter School and Vermilion Parish Schools!
Several commonalities were observed statewide, some of which parents and administrators may find surprising. It should be noted that some of the participating junior and high school students in the program actively use the app to report incidents more than others. Student participation may be encouraged by school administrations who actively promote the use of the app in the weeks following the Safe Schools LA team’s introductory presentations, training, and delivery of collateral materials. Therefore, the anonymous tips reported reflect statewide trends and may not be representative of any particular school due to environmental factors present in that community.
[STATS BY CATEGORY]
As of December 8, 2022, tip categorization by reporting students involved the following “event type” upon submission:
32% - “Bullying,” “Cyber Bullying,” or “Harassment”
*This stat was consistent throughout the semester and included a significant increase in LGBTQ+ related reports.
*A frequent tactic reported was the creation of a fake Instagram account to harass the victim.
*The largest demographic of reports included students in the 6th – 9th grades.
10% - “Vaping”
*Tips primarily included reports of vaping in the bathroom, band room, and bus.
6% - “Drugs”
*Types of drug reports varied from marijuana to cocaine.
5% - “Guns,” “Knife,” or “Shooting”
*Tips were often verified with accompanying social media posts prior to intervention.
*6 viable “shooting” tips and 1 possible planned school attack were received.
7% - “Suicide,” “Suicide Threats”
*Imminent reports included 3 interventions, 6 self-reported, and 1 observed via TikTok.
2% - “Sexual Assault,” “Sexual Misconduct”
*Interventions were required with older students interacting inappropriately with younger students.
“We want to salute the multi-disciplinary teams at all our partner schools. A principal, a counselor, a teacher, or an SRO has consistently intervened when notified without hesitation in every district we cover,” said Darlene Cusanza who leads the Safe Schools LA team. “We especially want to recognize Slaughter Community Charter School for being a model in anti-bullying practices and Vermilion Parish Schools for truly creating a safe space for its students to learn and grow.”
Developed by Crimestoppers of Greater New Orleans in partnership with the Louisiana Department of Education and Louisiana State Police, the app has grown from a regional program to a statewide program in the last two years. Schools and districts may still sign up for deployment in the 2022-2023 academic year through the SafeSchoolsLA.com website. Training and school promotional materials for use of the app are also available for free once onboarding of the school or school system is complete which can be initiated in less than 48 hours.
REFERENCES AND LINKS:
Safe Schools Louisiana Free Smartphone App:
Download the app for Apple Devices:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/crime-stoppers-gno-safe-school/id1268369585
Download the app for Google Devices:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.p3tips.gnocampus&hl=en_US&gl=US
School Violence STATISTICS:
- 100,000 students carry a gun to school each day
- 28% of youths who carry weapons have witnessed violence at home
- Among students, homicide perpetrators were more than twice as likely as homicide victims to have been bullied
- More youth violence occurs on school grounds as opposed to on the way to school.
- 1/3 of students surveyed said they heard another student threaten to kill someone.
- Teachers are also assaulted, robbed & bullied. 84 crimes per 1,000 teachers per year.
Reference: Bureau of Justice Statistics – School Crime & Safety (via NVEEE)
Endorsement (March 2021):
“The Crimestoppers Safe Schools Louisiana App is for all students in public, private, and charter schools, grades 6 through 12. The Crimestoppers Safe Schools Louisiana App is aimed at preventing an event from occurring through anonymous reporting. The app allows students to share what they know with people who can prevent the preventable…”
- Louisiana Department of Education (Superintendent) and Louisiana State Police (Colonel)
About Safe Schools LA
Crimestoppers “Safe Schools Louisiana” is an anonymous tip reporting solution designed for students, parents, and teachers to submit secure and anonymous concerns about campus or campus events. Whether it's drugs, bullying, mental health concerns, alcohol, sexting, or other related crimes, speaking up is the right thing to do. Through the app, a student can leave a tip, check tip status, add more information to existing tips and create new tips. They are even able to upload photos, screenshots, and videos. This is all accomplished by using the assigned “tip” number and password. Tips are monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! There is even a feature for two-way dialogue with a Crimestoppers employee. The app is powered by the P3 Campus platform which is used in over 20,000 schools and by over 10 million students across the United States. Once vetted, the assigned representatives are immediately notified for engagement. When there is a life safety concern, the entire Safe School team is contacted for immediate response and intervention.
About Crimestoppers of Greater New Orleans
Crimestoppers, Inc. is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit serving a nine-parish region of Southeastern Louisiana representing approximately 1,300,000 citizens and the respective law enforcement agencies. To foster a safe community, our mission is to prevent and solve crime by providing educational crime prevention programs for youth and adults, and by assisting Law Enforcement Agencies, victims of crime and their families, in identifying and arresting criminal suspects through anonymous tips by citizens. Crimestoppers, Inc., has worked in schools within the Greater Metropolitan New Orleans area and River Parishes since 2006 and has a proven track record of providing crime prevention training and information gathering, including the original tip hotline.
President/CEO: Darlene Cusanza
Darlene@Crimestoppersgno.org
Communications Director: Matthew Stone, APR
Matthew@Crimestoppersgno.org
Office (Non-tipline) 504.837.8477
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