WESTFIELD – Efforts are being made to reduce incidents of bullying in Westfield schools.
Last night, the Westfield School Committee approved a transfer of $2,635 to implement Anonymous Alerts, a software program enabling students to anonymously report bullying, cyberbullying and other behaviors,
The funds were taken from the district’s school choice revolving account and the program would be implemented for the remainder of the year, districtwide. The measure passed 6-1.
Westfield School Superintendent Dr. Suzanne Scallion told the committee that Abner Gibbs Elementary School Principal Chris Rodgers has been working on shoring up the district’s emergency system with city police and fire departments, when it comes to methods to help students anonymously report bullying in the city’s schools.
“There’s been lots of research and media coverage on the number of times that different events have been thwarted thanks to kids ‘dropping a dime’,” said Scallion. “(Anonymous reporting) is the contemporary way of dropping a dime.”
Scallion added that, due to budget constraints, approving the funds for this year would benefit all of the city’s school-aged children and stated that the software would be worked into the district’s base budget at a cost of just over $4,100.
When asked by committee member Kevin Sullivan how the anonymous alerts work, Rodgers stressed the importance of empowering students.
“We need something we can get in our students’ hands for our kids to be able to report if there’s any word, rumor or possible situation brewing that the kids are aware of,” he said. “In my experiences as a middle school assistant principal and principal, I can tell you firsthand – the kids are our best source of information. They have the pulse of the building better than any adults do.”
“Students want to get involved, but they don’t want their names attached to it,” he said. “They don’t want that retribution.”
Rodgers explained that the alerts allow students to submit tips via a website or a smartphone application and to do so anonymously.
“They identify what school they go to and what they may have heard, seen, witnessed or have been a part of,” he said. “They can send that in real-time to our database and any member of our team – whether it is a principal, assistant principal or counselor that is on a certain group list – will get a real-time email or text message.”
“It’s a proactive approach to try to head things off before they happen,” he said.
Rodgers painted a hypothetical picture of a Westfield High School student catching wind on a Monday evening that there may be a rumble between two students going on at the WHS flagpole Tuesday morning.
“Now they have that in their hands going into work Tuesday morning, they can go in there preemptively and stop something before it occurs,” he said of WHS Principal Jonathan Carter and his administrative staff.
Rodgers stated that while no names will be collectived from these tips, the IP addresses of the devices the alerts are sent from will be tracked to ensure students aren’t “abusing the system” by over-reporting or false reporting.
Scallion said that students and parents would be subjected to extensive training on how the system works, to be reinforced through school administration and guidance departments.
“There is a component for every member of the school community,” said Rodgers, who said that the program could also aid students contemplating harming themselves.
“If we can save a student’s life or their well-being from an anonymous tip, I’ll take that seven days out of seven days,” he said.
Scallion said that she expects to received funding from the Commonwealth going forward.
“This is an enormous initiative coming out of Boston,” she said before commending Rodgers for his efforts helping to coordinate district safety policies. “It’s actually extremely cost-effective.”
Committee member Jeffrey Gosselin, the lone dissenting vote, explained his decision at the conclusion of the meeting, citing the use of school choice funds to pay for the eight-month license.
“Being an educator, (school choice funding) is really for classrooms, textbooks, materials. It’s for learning in the classroom,” he said. “I was really disappointed other avenues of funding were not used, like a grant through the police department.”
“I realize it is a safety issue and safety is first,” Gosselin continued. “However, it just didn’t seem to apply here. If you look at the district list (of communities using Anonymous Alert), they’re all large districts in the South. It seems more applicable to those types of communities than ours.”
“It’s not that it is a bad idea. It just didn’t match at this time,” he said. “Maybe in the future when we look for other funding. There are grants out there.”
