DENVER — Safe2Tell saw an 89% increase in tips in September when compared to August, according to a monthly report released Tuesday by the Colorado Attorney General's Office.
Safe2Tell is a Colorado program that allows students and others to report anonymous threats or concerns. The report says Safe2Tell received a total of 2,025 tips in September.
To date for the 2022-2023 school year, Safe2Tell has received 3,096 tips, according to the monthly report.
The report shows the most common tip categories were suicide threats (250), bullying (177) and school complaints (150).
The program recorded a higher number of duplicate reports (273), which are reports regarding a concern or event that has already been reported, than in August. They often indicate a healthy culture of reporting safety concerns in a community, the release says.
“Last month, we heard from the community that threatening posts were being spread on social media, which likely led to the rise in duplicate reports recorded by Safe2Tell in September,” Attorney General Phil Weiser said in the release. “Whenever students or community members see a threatening social post about a school, we encourage taking a screenshot and sending it directly to Safe2Tell. Re-sharing harmful or threatening posts you see on social media can add to the harm and spread fear or disinformation.”
In this school year, false reports are 2.2% of all reports submitted to Safe2Tell. False reports are those that contain untrue information and are submitted with the intent to harm, injure, or bully another person.
After a bill passed by the Colorado legislature in 2020, every mobile and web tip submitted to Safe2Tell receives a response that includes contact information for Colorado Crisis Services. Phone tips can be directly transferred to the Colorado Crisis Services phone line (1-844-493-8255).
To make a report, anyone can call 1-877-542-7233 from anywhere, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Reports also can be made at Safe2Tell.org or through the Safe2Tell mobile app, which is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
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