Apps are being used in schools around the country to address a variety of issues, including bullying, mental health issues, and possible shootings. Said experts, the strategy has its limitations.
Over the past twenty years, worries about gun violence, bullying, mass shootings, and student mental health have grown in American classrooms. More schools are using apps to solve these issues in the wake of the epidemic, which severely harmed pupils and compelled many schools to use new technology to teach students.
According to Alexis Hancock of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, “During the pandemic, technology companies really took a rise of presenting themselves as an app-based solution for school problems.”
That should come as no surprise—who does not adore technological fixes for everything? It is unexpected that these apps are being downloaded and used by parents and kids in thousands of schools.
The idea of using applications to handle issues like shootings, mental health crises, and cyberbullying is not new. Additionally, Corporate America is investigating this avenue. On the other hand, things appear to be taking off within the IT departments at different schools.
According to Craig Hansen, he noticed that students were having more difficulties than ever during the pandemic. In addition to going through the trauma of the epidemic, they also endured a protracted period of social isolation and had been denied access to many of their regular activities. Additionally, they still had to deal with the typical demands of school. Therefore, he was looking for a method to assist. Hansen is the chief emergency officer of Questar III BOCES, a school that serves districts in the Hudson Valley of New York by offering administrative and instructional services.
Apps with a wide range of safety and monitoring features, such as tracking visitors to schools, silent alarms, communication with police and mental health counselors, and anonymous threat reporting, are available from companies like STOPit Solutions, Raptor Technologies, Navigate360, Anonymous Alerts, and Sandy Hook Promise. Numerous states have created such reporting systems on their own.
According to the corporations, they are providing students and schools with resources that can avert tragedies. There is no denying their increasing prevalence.
Hansen said he submitted an application for a grant from the Justice Department was awarded money to support a program designed to help youngsters with their issues. After weighing a few possibilities, he decided on STOPit Solutions since it has a monitoring center open around the clock for evaluating reports. His proposal was eventually accepted with the support of fifteen local school districts. They are using the system currently.
The privately held company STOPit Solutions, which was founded in 2013, claims that 8,800 schools nationwide are currently using its app.
“We provide children with an easy, quick, and effective method to seek help when they’re in trouble, which may involve an outside threat, a threat on campus, or an internal threat to oneself, as is more frequently the case these days,” CEO C. Parkhill Mays III stated.
According to Mays, the company receives between 300 and 500 reports from students each night, of whom 10.5% pose an immediate threat and require the involvement of the police or mental health specialists.