NEW MILFORD — A new anonymous tip line rolling out to students at New Milford High School is expected to help staff combat bullying and address other concerns.
The school district collaborated with the town to implement the online reporting system Anonymous Alerts, which allows students to report bullying and other safety or wellness issues to school officials.
A pilot for the app launched at the high school on Feb. 21.
“This is just a great opportunity for us to be able to get information, get it in a timely manner and be able to dispatch resources to be more proactive and reactive,” said Ray Manka, principal at the high school. “We are happy to be able to pilot this for New Milford Public Schools at the high school, so we can figure out how to have this be effective and efficient for our kids, our families and obviously for our community.”
Implementation of the new app comes after New Milford conducted a safety audit of all the school buildings in the wake of the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas and an incident last April when a loaded 9mm “ghost gun” was found in a student’s vehicle on the New Milford High School campus.
Assistant Superintendent Holly Hollander said conversations about Anonymous Alerts began last spring, and that she, Mayor Pete Bass and New Milford Youth Agency Executive Director Jason O’Connor worked together “to take a very thoughtful approach.”
That included learning about the platform, speaking with other school districts, such as Newtown and Valhalla, N.Y., that use the system and planning with the high school leadership team on how to best onboard the platform itself.
“The wellness and safety of our students and faculty are at the forefront of our work as we ensure a safe school environment in which all members take the necessary actions needed to achieve positive academic, social and emotional growth,” Hollander said. “We want our schools to be warm, welcoming destinations for students, families and staff.”
School to take reports ‘seriously’
Manka said staff and students have been trained on how to use the app, while a branding campaign will encourage them to download it by scanning a QR code.
He said the district wants to “learn from the experience, make it as best as we can here… and where else it will go after this, that’s going to be up to our superintendent and how our school community wants to roll this one out.”
Manka said the district worked with representatives from Anonymous Alerts to tailor the system’s interface to New Milford schools. He said students using the app can report their concerns by selecting from a category of issues they’re either experiencing or have witnessed in or out of school.
“Hopefully, it’ll get to be like a text box dialogue like you’d see on an Android or an Apple phone,” Manka said, “so it’s going to be very comfortable in terms of interface.”
Manka said students may submit concerns either anonymously or with their contact information, such as their name, phone number or school email.
“We’re looking forward to using this technology to really help us in cracking down on bullying,” Bass said.
These reports will then be directed toward the appropriate individuals based on the categories students select, Manka said. For example, issues related to athletics could go to the district’s athletic director, while any information related to a threat made to the school buildings could go to the superintendent or building principal.
“Every time we get reports, we take them seriously,” Manka said. “We do our investigations, we do our due diligence. We want to make sure we always take time to listen, hear, investigate and respond — particularly as it has to do with social-emotional wellness, safety and/or things that are outside of the school that could emerge inside of school and become problematic and district the teaching-learning environment.”
