As the new school year begins, Nodaway Valley Community School District in Iowa is focusing on bullying prevention.
Nodaway Valley CSD is implementing Awareity’s TIPS (Threat assessment, Incident management & Prevention Services) prevention platform to help improve school communications, raise awareness and improve student safety. TIPS allows students, teachers, staff, parents and community members to anonymously report bullying, cyber bullying, weapons, abuse, vandalism, suicide risks and other concerning behaviors.
According to Dr. Casey Berlau, Superintendent for Nodaway Valley CSD, “We want our students to tell us about any concerns they have. If it is hurting their ability to learn, it needs to stop. Kids will withdraw if you tell them to report something and then do nothing about it. TIPS is helping our team proactively identify, respond and address student safety issues before they escalate.”
How it works: anyone who observes a student making threats, witnesses bullying, or has concerns about friends, students or others, should visit the Nodaway Valley CSD website and select the appropriate incident type, share the necessary details and submit. TIPS can also be used to report acts of kindness and for ongoing student surveys.
Once an incident report is made, the principal and designated staff members are immediately notified and can securely review the report details to begin coordinating an appropriate assessment and response. TIPS provides all team members with tools to track and document the actions taken, see related reports, set automated reminders, review past reports and connect the right dots so no students or incidents are overlooked.
“Most fights don’t start on the playground- fights start the night before on Facebook and schools are just seeing the escalation the next day at school,” says Awareity’s President Rick Shaw. “I have heard administrators say they just don’t have time to deal with all of the problems being brought to their attention, but if those administrators would just take time to handle small situations when they start, it will save them a lot of time and pain dealing with bigger issues that were allowed to escalate. We applaud Nodaway Valley Schools for listening to their students and taking proactive action with TIPS.”
