The Kentucky Center for School Safety, housed in the Murray State University College of Education, is testing a new tipline to help students or parents report any unsafe situation to school personnel anonymously.
The program is called the Safety Tipline Online Prevention, or STOP!.
The tipline is currently being tested in seven school districts in western Kentucky: Crittenden County, Fulton Independent, Graves County, Henderson County, Hopkins County, Livingston County and Mayfield Independent. These schools have been using the tipline since November.
KCSS resource center director Karen McCuiston says the tipline will help students who might have otherwise remained silent about bullying.
“We know that a lot of our students, K-12 students in area schools, grew up in a cyber world, and they are so much more comfortable talking to someone if they can use technology, if they can write an email, use their telephone, use their tablet, any time, day or nig ht, if they had a problem,” McCuiston said.
The tipline will be free and available to all Kentucky schools in February.
