Schools take proactive approach to improve safety on campus

In a move intended to squelch school violence before it begins, Beaufort County Schools has launched a new tip line that allows callers to report, anonymously, any dangerous activity on a school’s campus.

The tip-line number is 940-6545, and it is a local call from anywhere in the county.

Callers do not have to give their names.

Dubbed “It’s OK to Say,” the tip line was implemented to encourage students to report bullying, harassment, drugs and weapons on campus or other dangerous acts or potential violence at their schools, according to BCS Superintendent Don Phipps.

“We want our students to feel comfortable taking a role in the safety of their campus,” Phipps said in a press release announcing implementation of the tip line.

The school campus is “the place they spend a large majority of their time” and students should “expect to feel safe being there,” he said. “The tip line allows them to report things that may infringe on that safety.”

“It’s OK to Say” is the second initiative this year to allow students and adults to participate in the safety of the county’s public schools, Phipps said.

Earlier this year, “Report a Bully or Harassment” links were added to each school’s web page on the Internet.

School administrators and school-based law-enforcement officers will follow up on tips provided through the Internet links and the “It’s OK to Say” tip line.

The local effort to prevent school violence comes one day after at least two people were killed in a shooting at a high school in Chardon, Ohio. News reports Monday in connection with that incident said plans for similar incidents at other schools across the country had been thwarted by tips to school officials and law-enforcement officers and through tip lines.