Web-based tip line may solve some school security issues

Nov 14, 2006 3:52 PM

At a private Web site, students can now send secret messages to staff at Westfield High School in Texas about their own -- and other people's -- problems, The Houston Chronicle reports.

In the Houston area, Westfield and at least two other schools have tried the e-mail system developed by a Houston nonprofit organization and now run by AnComm, a Mississippi-based company with its own MySpace page. More than 40 schools use it nationwide.

AnComm President Carter Myers sees cyber communication as a natural evolution in school-student relations. "They call this generation the Internet generation for a reason," he tells the newspaper. "It is the preferred medium of how children communicate today."

Because it is computerized, AnComm's system gives schools regular reports on the problems their students document. Last year, for instance, bullying was the most popular e-mail topic followed by self-mutilation. Westfield launched the program this year.

AnComm only reveals students' identities if they write about hurting themselves or others, according to Myers. Students who send false tips or e-mail about things that are untrue can get booted from the system, Myers adds.

Kenneth S. Trump, a school security and safety expert based in Ohio, said schools have to get Web-savvy to keep up with children today. Some have come up with online tip lines similar to AnComm's but less formal, he tells the newspaper.

He recommends that schools monitor sites such as MySpace and Facebook, where students often share graphic and revealing details about their lives.

"Kids are posting pictures of themselves and others with weapons, firearms, drugs and gang signs," he said. "There are huge issues there that will just continue to grow."

Westfield principal Julie Guillory hopes the program improves campus safety and gets shy students seeking help in addition to benefiting school officials who are "too busy or tied up" to meet with students one-on-one.

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