Awareity
Each of the following 12 topics are explained in more detail in this Executive Briefing. These 12 topics represent some of the most common challenges, goals, needs, concerns and obligations facing schools and school leadership today:
Student Achievement Depends on a Safe Learning Environment
“At Tulsa Public Schools, we know that learning and high student achievement is only going to be accomplished in an environment that is safe for our students.”
– Dr. Keith Ballard, Superintendent of Tulsa Public Schools.
- Dangerous and Alarming Trends in Schools are Escalating
- Suicide has become the third leading cause of death among youths…
- Budget Challenges Put High Value on Innovation and School Leadership
- What is also clear is budget challenges can be a catalyst for change…
- Office of Civil Rights Dear Colleague Letters Must be Followed
school resources) are unaware of the Office of Civil Rights Dear Colleague Letters (OCR DCLs).
Federal Investigations in Schools Are Preventable
- The best way to prevent federal investigations is to make sure your school and all individuals are equipped
- to take appropriate actions for each and every challenge…
- State Laws and Compliance Year Around (CYA)
- At this time, most states (47 states according to http://www.bullypolice.org) have an anti-bullying law…
- Lawsuits and Deliberate Indifference
- Can your school afford a legal settlement of $225,000 or more?
- Study Finds Anti-Bullying Programs Ineffective
- A 290+ page report offers several strategies, as well as feedback from students and teachers, finding that anti-bullying curriculums are an ineffective substitute for student-focused engagement strategies…
Accountability (and Ben Franklin)
“Well done is always better than well said.”
Parental and Community Disconnects
- Lessons learned clearly reveal disconnects between parents, students, school personnel and community resources can lead to lawsuits, rumors, distrust, violence, reputational damages and soaring expenses related to meetings, mailings and knee jerk reactions…
- Anonymous Incident Reporting and Incident Management
- Studies show only 1 or 2 out of every 10 incidents are reported, but between 6 and 8 out of every 10 students say they would report incidents and suspicious activities if they had an anonymous option.
- Status Quo Annual and General Training
- …schools experiencing the incidents had taken steps to provide annual training, general training, assemblies, anti-bullying weeks, posters and numerous other awareness efforts…but tragic incidents still occurred.
“At Tulsa Public Schools, we know that learning and high student achievement is only going to be accomplished in an environment that is safe for our students.”
– Dr. Keith Ballard – Superintendent of Tulsa Public Schools
Dr. Keith Ballard is right; improving student achievement (and teacher evaluations, school ratings, etc.) depends on a school’s ability to build and sustain a safe learning environment for all students. With budget concerns for the foreseeable future, school leaders must make building and maintaining their learning environment a top priority to make sure expensive and valuable resources (curriculums, teachers, iPads, technology, money, etc.) are not being wasted.
- Alarming trends nationally and globally clearly reveal your school’s learning environment may not be as safe as you thought or hoped. One of the best ways to gather honest feedback and better understand your school climate is to offer ongoing anonymous surveys for teachers, students, parents and other resources.
- Awareity’s TIPS platform “equips” your school with customizable anonymous surveys for students, teachers, bus drivers, counselors, parents, etc. TIPS delivers detailed summary reports so your School Safety Team can take appropriate and proactive actions towards building and maintaining a safe
- learning environment for all students.
- Dangerous and Alarming Trends
*http://www.nea.org/home/42869.htm
**https://www.dcjs.virginia.gov/vcss/documents/SchoolSafetySurvey2010.pdf
A Virginia survey** revealed that students rank bullying as their number one safety concern for the third year in a row. Virginia is not alone based on several surveys from other states.
Suicide has become the third leading cause of death among youths, and the second leading cause of death among college students.
One person under the age of 25 commits suicide every 2 hours and 2.5 minutes.
School leaders cannot afford to wait and cannot pretend status quo approaches are adequate for their school.
Virginia School Safety Survey
Multiple surveys reveal anywhere from 20% to 80% of students have witnessed or experienced cyberbullying, which is very concerning since teachers, administrators and parents rarely witness cyberbullying and cyberbullying occurs when students are both at school and away from school. Studies show that only 1 or 2 out of every 10 incidents (bullying, cyberbullying, sexual assaults and others) are reported. This trend is especially alarming for multiple reasons:
• 8 or 9 times out of 10 the bully is getting away with bullying and will not be reported
• 8 or 9 times out of 10 the school is liable and responsible but not aware of the situation
• 8 or 9 times out of 10 the school’s safety team is not equipped to take appropriate actions
To address these alarming and dangerous trends, school leaders must understand that real anonymity is what students and adults want and need. Surveys show between 6 and 8 of 10 students would report incidents if they could do it anonymously and maybe even higher rates if results are seen. Hotlines, e-mails, texts and face-to-face incident reporting options are the options most schools offer, but none of these options are anonymous and why only 1 or 2 out of every 10 incidents are reported. Awareity’s TIPS platform offers anonymous online incident reporting so students (victims, bystanders, friends, etc.), teachers, bus drivers, counselors, parents and others in the community can go online from where ever they feel safe and report incidents. The TIPS platform automatically notifies all appropriate Safety Team members so they can take immediate and appropriate actions.
- Budget Challenges Put High Value on Innovation and Leadership
- ALL schools are facing budget challenges due to cuts in state and federal funding.
- What is also clear is that budget challenges can be a catalyst for change. When we look at other great leaders in history, some of the greatest opportunities forever changing the course of their lives and the lives of others occurred during times of adversity. We believe the adversity schools are facing right now represents a unique opportunity for school leaders to capitalize.
With so many alarming and dangerous trends, using budget challenges as an excuse to maintain status quo approaches is by far the worst decision any school leader can make.
Lessons learned clearly reveal status quo approaches are more expensive, less efficient and clearly not effective in keeping pace with the alarming and dangerous trends featured in this Executive Briefing and numerous other challenges your school may be facing.
As you review each topic in this Executive Briefing, keep track of how much time, money and resources your school is wasting on traditional, paper-based, labor-intensive and resource intensive approaches. The same status quo approaches will deliver the same status quo results, and your school’s students, teachers and parents
deserve better and expect more.
Awareity’s TIPS platform and proven successes reveal the criticality of “equipping” a school’s leaders and Safety Teams (as well as teachers, students, parents and other resources) with innovative tools like TIPS to save money, save time, save resources and save lives.
In our discussions with school personnel, it is shocking how many school leaders (administrators, teachers, counselors, safety teams and other school resources) are unaware of the Office of
Civil Rights Dear Colleague Letters (OCR DCLs).
It is important to emphasize each of the steps above must be taken by schools “who know or reasonably should know” about harassment incidents or a hostile learning environment. For example, if 60% of teachers are observing bullying incidents each month and if up to 80% of students are observing cyberbullying, then reasonably you and your school knows a hostile learning environment exists. If you do the math at your school and 60% of teachers or 80% of students are observing harassment, intimidation and bullying related incidents, how many incidents are you investigating and documenting?
The tragic consequences of not being aware of incidents you should know about and not following the mandated OCR DCL guidelines were clearly revealed when a student in a California school committed suicide after being bullied for an extended period of time. This tragic incident triggered a 7 month long federal investigation by the Department of Education and the Department of Justice. The results of the federal investigation provided key evidence for a lawsuit filed by the mother of the student against the school district, as well as the superintendent, the principal, the vice principal and four teachers.
Lessons learned clearly show how outdated and status quo approaches are the primary reasons schools are failing to meet OCR Dear Colleague Letter obligations. Awareity’s TIPS platform is designed to “equip” all individuals with the tools they need to take appropriate actions, while eliminating expensive and inefficient practices that continue to result in lost lives, lawsuits, federal investigations and numerous other embarrassing consequences.
Federal Investigations Are Preventable
No school leader wants their school to be the target of a lengthy federal investigation and in these
economic times, no school can afford the serious consequences associated with a federal investigation.
For example, a federal investigation can:
• Cost your school a lot of time and resources
• Create even more concerns about the safety and leadership at the school
• Result in loss of federal funding
• Result in a “Resolution Agreement” requiring significant changes
• Result in an expensive lawsuit or settlement
• Lead to negative headlines and media coverage both locally and nationally
• Cause serious damage to the school’s reputation
• Cause serious damages to reputation of administrators, teachers and staff
The best way to prevent federal investigations is to make sure your school and all individuals are
equipped to take appropriate actions for each and every challenge described in this Executive Briefing.
The OCR DCLs clearly define guidelines that must be followed if the school
knows or reasonably should know about student harassment, including:
• Empowering students, teachers, parents and others to report incidents
• Investigating each incident
• Taking immediate action to stop the harassment
• Taking appropriate actions to prevent recurrence of harassment
• Eliminating the hostile environment
• Addressing the effects of the harassment and hostile environment
• Taking appropriate actions to revise policies and re-train faculty and staff
• Documenting actions taken for compliance, legal and other obligations
Many school leaders are pushing back when it comes to their compliance obligations because they say the state laws represent unfunded mandates. Some cite government funding cuts have led to budget limitations that make it difficult to meet new and more stringent compliance mandates. Lessons learned show compliance does not always equal prevention and improved student safety.
However, compliance is an organizational obligation and laws are needed because organizations have not demonstrated their ability to take appropriate actions on their own. School leaders can slow down the regulatory onslaught by taking immediate steps to build and maintain safe learning environments.
Compliance represents an opportunity for school administrators to lead by example and solve real world problems with creativity and innovation, just like students are encouraged to do.
Multiple examples of successes in a wide range of schools utilizing Awareity’s TIPS platform are provided at the end of this Executive Briefing.
Lawsuits and Deliberate Indifference
Schools and school leaders are not exempt from the litigious society we live in. Therefore, all school personnel must be equipped to take appropriate actions when they know or should know about events of harassment, intimidation, bullying, cyberbullying, sexual assault, etc.
Recent settlements and pending lawsuits are establishing precedents school leaders should take very seriously to prevent devastating harm to their school’s bottom line, reputation and the community too.
For example, the town of South Hadley (Massachusetts) paid $225,000 to the parents of Phoebe Prince (who committed suicide after being bullied by classmates). This settlement did not include legal fees incurred when six former classmates were charged in connection with Phoebe’s treatment at school. More recently, the Emerson Board of Education (New Jersey) settled a lawsuit brought by a former student who said bullying linked to his perceived sexual orientation over a six-year period was ignored by school administrators. The student will receive $130,000 from the Bergen County School District.
A pending lawsuit filed by the mother of Seth Walsh (who committed suicide after being bullied by classmates) against the Tehachapi Unified School District (TUSD) is one all school leaders should be watching closely. The lawsuit was filed using the results of a federal investigation by the Department of Justice and Department of Education that found TUSD “failed to act in an appropriate manner” even though the school was aware of the harassment towards Seth Walsh. Our greatest opportunities often occur during times of adversity, and making a difference for student safety will not happen until status quo approaches, excuses and acts of deliberate indifference are eliminated. Can your school afford a legal settlement of $130,000, $225,000 or more?
State Laws and Compliance Year Around (CYA)
As student safety related headlines and tragedies escalate, more and more pressure is targeted at state legislators to create more laws and/or more stringent laws to ensure safety for all students.
At this time, most states (47 states according to http://www.bullypolice.org) have an anti-bullying law. Many of these states have responded to pressures from parents and tragedies (like Virginia Tech, Phoebe Prince at South Hadley, Seth Walsh at Tehachapi, Tyler Clementi at Rutgers and others) by creating more stringent guidelines for preventing bullying and cyberbullying.
OJJDP Report Says Anti-Bullying Programs Ineffective
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, part of the U.S. Department of Justice, issued a report in which bullying in schools was examined and recommendations were made for the best ways schools can provide support to bullying victims. The report* is a 290+ page document and is a product of a study conducted by the National Center for School Engagement. The report offers several strategies, as well as feedback from students and teachers finding that anti-bullying curriculums are an ineffective substitute for student-focused engagement strategies: What the students generally agreed does not work to help them survive their victimization intact are superficial anti-bullying programs, engrafted on to existing curricula almost as an after-thought, which might afford lip service to school districts’ responsibilities for addressing bullying concerns, but are usually ineffective and viewed by students as “tedious” or “lame”.
The report emphasizes the need for schools to give students a safe place of refuge and to be connected with responsible adults who can support them and sustain them with a sense of future possibilities beyond the immediate dangers from a hostile school environment.
Students want bullying, cyberbullying, harassment, intimidation and other hostile threats to stop!
Awareity’s TIPS platform “equips” students to be heard and to confidentially (or anonymously) reach out and engage with Safety Teams (responsible adults) who will respond with support and
help stop the hostile threats. TIPS “equips” Safety Team members to work together, take appropriate actions and provide the support students need to feel engaged and connected rather than isolated and alone.
*https://www.ncjrs.gov/app/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=256074
The teachers described two ways in which caring and community-building are frustrated. The first involved school administrators who “sweep bullying under the rug” – ignoring it or downplaying its significance – in order to maintain reputations or to avoid confrontations. The second involved what the teachers labeled “bullying- in-a-box” or “bullying- in-a-binder”: These are attempts by school districts and building leaders to address bullying issues by handing teachers some pre- fabricated anti-bullying curriculum (in a box or a binder) and directing them to teach its components in addition to the regular curriculum.
The teachers viewed these types of anti-bullying interventions as a distracting and ineffective substitute for substantive leadership/district support for what is really needed to combat bullying: a caring school community in which individual students are meaningfully challenged and supported by the adults around them and each other.
Accountability Depends on “Well Said” and “Well Done”
As noted previously, students are not impressed with “lip service” and neither was Ben Franklin:
“Well done is always better than well said.”
Lessons learned clearly reveal that schools must do BOTH “well said” and “well done” if they are going to achieve better results. “Well Said” includes laws, handbooks, plans, programs, policies, procedures, annual training, assemblies, posters, e-mails and etc. and schools are doing a good job with “Well Said”. However, lessons learned show schools are struggling with achieving “Well Done” results.
Accountability is the obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions.
Accountability is something that organizational leaders love to talk about, but making sure each individual within an organization walks the talk is rarely achieved. Why? Very few organizations are equipped to securely share information, take appropriate actions, measure and track acknowledgements, update situational awareness in real-time and document actions taken at the individual-level.
Awareity’s TIPS platform includes the proven and award-winning Awareness & Accountability
Vault where all appropriate individuals will have anytime access to their own policies, procedures, plans, roles, responsibilities, obligations, situational awareness, customized training and more. The Awareness & Accountability Vault ensures that every individual (boards, administration, teachers, staff, students, parents and third-parties) sees, understands and acknowledges their accountability for their roles and responsibilities. Handbooks, e-mails, handouts, posters, websites, intranets and assemblies do not provide accountability or legal defensibility.
Countless news stories and more and more lawsuits show significant disconnects between parents and schools. For example, in the Emerson Board of Education settlement the parents claimed to have reported 17 instances of bullying and harassment to district officials and the NJ
Attorney General report concluded; “There is sufficient evidence to support a reasonable suspicion that these incidents of bullying were either ignored or improperly handled by Respondent.”
There are two other similar lawsuits* against New Jersey school districts in which students claim administrators ignored reports of bullying and are pending before administrative law judges. From numerous well-publicized tragedies, we know damages to communities can be significant. We also know from numerous reports and lessons learned that schools have not effectively connected-the-dots or equipped community resources and third-party resources to assist and take appropriate actions.
Disconnects between parents, students, school personnel and community resources have led to lawsuits, rumors, distrust, violence, reputational damages and soaring expenses related to meetings, mailings and emotional knee jerk reactions.
Awareity’s TIPS platform “equips” school leaders to make sure parents and community resources are connected, giving them access to anonymous or non-anonymous incident reporting, customized surveys, student handbook/policies and updates that can be accessed and acknowledged by parents or community resources so the school has a real-time record of who has and has not seen and acknowledged the latest updates on an ongoing basis.
*http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/12/emerson_board_of_education_to.html
Real Anonymous Incident Reporting, Incident Investigations, Incident Management,
Real-Time View of At-Risk Individuals, Awareness Vault and Documentation
(For all actions, responsibilities and obligations mentioned in this Executive Briefing)
Headlines, conferences and lessons learned show schools are struggling mightily with incident reporting, investigations, information distribution, legal defensibility, regulatory compliance, auditability, accountability and numerous other requirements and obligations. Schools are finding it more and more difficult to “connect-the-dots” because of too many silo-based solutions. To make matters worse, silo-based solutions can actually make schools even more vulnerable to tragedies, disconnects, lawsuits and fines. Schools have “bought into” intranets, learning management systems, handbooks, departmental binders, spreadsheets, e-mails, annual training, posters, hotlines, checklists and numerous other silo-based solutions that do not work together. One of the most common silo-based solutions are incident reporting services that “open the door” for people to report incidents, but does not equip the school’s Safety Team or numerous other resources to securely share information, protect information from unauthorized access, document all actions or provide automated reminders and notifications to ensure all appropriate people are “connected” and taking appropriate actions.
To a caller, a hotline is not anonymous and a hotline answered by a third-party who passes along details to a school is
not anonymous. Text messages are not anonymous and when a third-party receives the text and passes along details to a school, it is not anonymous to the person texting. When a student reports an incident to a teacher or adult, the student is not anonymous. Studies show only 1 or 2 out of every 10 incidents are reported, but between 6 and 8 out of every 10 students say they would report incidents and behaviors if they had an anonymous option.
Awareity’s TIPS platform provides a comprehensive suite of award-winning and proven tools so schools can “equip” everyone with anonymous incident reporting, anonymous surveys and tools to “equip” Safety Team members to securely share incident reports, investigation updates, a real-time dashboard of at-risk individuals, anytime access to guidelines and checklists,
automated reminders, automated documentation of all actions taken, tools for connecting-the-dots, preventing preventable incidents and much more.
Status Quo Annual/General Training, Assemblies and Anti-Bullying Weeks Lessons learned from hundreds of schools experiencing tragedies and student safety related incidents
reveal that these schools had taken steps to provide annual training, general training, assemblies, anti-bullying weeks, posters and numerous other awareness efforts…but tragic incidents still occurred.
Why?
School leaders need to stop pretending annual, once-a-year, one-size-fits-all training can keep pace with today’s continuous changes. Would you educate students this way? In today’s world, the key to improving efficiencies, performance, safety, student achievement and many other school obligations is ensuring “situational awareness and accountability” at the individual-level. (See Accountability section) Situational awareness must be available and accessible to individuals based on their location, department, roles, responsibilities, priorities, strategies, missions, resources, regulations, laws, legal defensibility, moral obligations and more.
Awareity’s TIPS platform offers successes in schools and universities in making sure all individuals have acknowledged customized situational awareness and accountability for their
roles and responsibilities. Awareity’s TIPS platform also significantly reduces costs by eliminating costs associated with handbooks, binders, trainers, training facilities, paper-based
documentation, managing spreadsheets, audits, accreditations and much more. Risk Innovator Award from Risk & Insurance Magazine
Risk and Insurance Magazine’s Risk Innovator Award for Education was awarded to Rick Shaw, CEO and Founder of Awareity, for the development of the TIPS platform. Risk Innovator winners are chosen for their ability to identify emerging risks for their industry, to apply strategic risk utilization and to develop creative, out-of-the-ordinary solutions for risk mitigation. TIPS is designed to help schools and organizations improve incident reporting (anonymous), safety, prevention, risk management, compliance, insurability and CYA for the 21st century. TIPS is helping
schools, colleges and other institutions identify troubled students or employees and intervene before they harm themselves or others.
To learn more about the TIPS platform, please visit www.tipsprevent.com or contact info@awareity.com
PREVENT
T I P S
Awareity’s TIPS platform is equipping individuals and schools to do the right thing and take appropriate actions ijn all types of situations:
- Bullying Prevention - Student Safety - Risk Management
- Threat Assessment - Crisis Prevention - Behavioral Intervention
- Sexual Harassment - Regulatory Compliance - Legal Due Diligence
- Training/Administration - Security/Privacy Awareness - And much more
Contact Information:
If you would like to learn more about Awareity’s services or schedule an online demonstration:
Website: http://www.tipsprevent.com
http://www.awareity.com
Email: info@awareity.com
Phone: 402.730.0090
"We've pretty much got an idea of what we need to do for strategies and what we need to teach the students. But the problem is trying to find a way for students to communicate to us in a way that they feel safe."
- K12 Student Services Coordinator
“Our teachers and staff are ever vigilant, but you can't prevent situations you don't know about. TIPS will provide us with one more way for students, teachers, parents and members of the community to alert us to problems - either inside or outside our schools. Then we can be proactive and intervene appropriately, whether it's suspected bullying, harassment or fear that a student might take their own life.”
- K12 School Superintendent
“TIPS is helping us become more aware of threats and incidents; if we don’t know about risks, we can’t work to prevent them. TIPS allows us to tap into our community and empower individuals to come forward and share their concerns with us.”
- K12 School Administrator
"We are thrilled to be able to offer such a valuable tool to help parents feel success as they lead their families. It is our prayer that no safety crisis touches our children. It is our responsibility to be ready if it does."
- K12 School Principal
“TIPS is helping us become more aware of threats and incidents; if we don’t know about risks, we can’t work to prevent them. TIPS allows us to tap into our community and empower individuals to come forward and share their concerns with us.”
- K12 School Administrator
“TIPS is truly the most comprehensive threat assessment and incident management system available for schools and campuses to receive anonymous reports from students, teachers, staff, parents and community resources, and ensure all appropriate personnel are notified to connect the dots”
- University Psychologist and Suicide Intervention Expert
www. A W A R E I T Y .com
