Louisiana students and teachers are able to use a school safety app funded by the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security to send in tips about potential threats following the mass shooting in Winder, Georgia.
The Safe Schools LA app, created by CrimeStoppers Inc. Greater New Orleans (GNO), gives 650 schools the ability to anonymously report tips about threats, bullying, abuse, and more, WGNO reported.
“Certainly sadness, shock and [it is] really just disheartening that we have to see this happening again and again in our nation,” said the organization’s president and CEO Darlene Cusanza.
“Whenever these terrible things happen, these shootings happen, let’s remind ourselves that we have services here. Let’s remind ourselves that we all play a role to speak up,” Cusanza said.
“We know that, regretfully, when children or students or concerned in possibly or a point where they’re threatening violence, they usually tell somebody else,” she explained.
Reports of the app come after 14-year-old Apalachee High School student Colt Gray allegedly gunned down two teens and two teachers last week.
The FBI had previously received “several anonymous tips about online threats to commit a school shooting” regarding Gray, the bureau’s Atlanta field office admitted:
Cusanza said that having conversations about bullying and abuse contributing to these tragedies is important.
“When you hear about these shootings, usually there is a component where the child felt like they were bullied and whether they were bullied or abused in whatever situation, it’s usually over a longer-term period. You know, other kids witness that,” she told the outlet. “So it’s always having that conversation with the bystanders or those, you know, the witnesses, you know, don’t be silent.”
Safe Schools LA reportedly features a 24/7 “live answering service,” where operators receive and vet tips before sending them on to school officials and the proper authorities.
“Don’t ever just assume that, you know, you’re not going to intervene, or you can’t help,” Cusanza said. “Kids want to have power over their situations. They want to do the right thing. They want to feel like they have an opportunity to use their voice.”
