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State school safety tip system fielded 23K reports this year

HARRISBURG — A state report released Monday said bullying, self-harm and suicide were the most common concerns fielded during the first half-year of operation for a new threat reporting system that covers Pennsylvania schools.

The 21-page report by the state attorney general’s office said the Safe2Say Something program generated more than 23,000 tips between mid-January, when it launched, through the end of June.

Most tips, the report said, are not about violent threats.

“The numbers in this report show the reality of what our children are facing in school as they struggle with bullying, anxiety and thoughts of self-harm,” the report concluded, urging state lawmakers to increase mental health resources in schools.

The report said there were 607 tips about threats against schools and 523 about threats against people.

About 1,300 tips were determined to be pranks, including a majority of them that were immediately identified as false.

“There is no question that this program is contributing to a safer school environment,” said Sen. Pat Browne, R-Lehigh, a prime sponsor of the legislation. “The success of Safe2Say lies in a caller’s trust that they will remain anonymous and that their tip will be taken seriously and acted upon swiftly.”

Safe2Say Something covers all K-12 students in Pennsylvania, including charter, private and vocational-technical schools.

People most commonly made reports through a mobile app that handled more than 19,000 tips. The website received more than 3,500 tips, and about 500 were called in.

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