NEWS RELEASE
OFFICE OF ATTORNEY GENERAL
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DENVER – Safe2Tell reports increased to the second highest reporting month on record with 3,188 reports in April 2024, according to the report released today. School complaints were the top category of reports for the fourth month in a row.
“While our data is consistent with a national trend of rising reports of school complaints, the number of suicide reports in April has remained the same to what it was a year ago,” said Attorney General Phil Weiser. “There’s still work to do to help our kids that are struggling today, and we are committed to addressing that challenge.”
Last month saw the report volume for the 2023-2024 school year rise to 23,799, an increase from the 18,783 reports at the same point in the 2022-2023 school year. Behind school complaints (378), top categories of reports included bullying (354) and suicide (287).
“April is one of the heaviest reporting months every year, and school complaints is a complex category about issues within the school itself. Sometimes it’s about school security or staff, and other times its dissatisfaction with how the school dealt with issues like bullying or student conflict. We are analyzing data now to see if we need to make any updates to reporting categories for the next school year,” explained Safe2Tell Director Stacey Jenkins.
False reports make up 3.7 per cent of all reports submitted to the program this year. False reports are those that contain untrue information and are submitted with the intent to harm, injure, or bully another person.
Anonymous reports to Safe2Tell from students and other individuals successfully helped protect students’ safety this past month:
- A person reported that a peer regularly brings their knife to school, and although they don’t think the student is dangerous, it makes them uncomfortable. School teams investigated, confiscated the student’s knife, contacted the parents, and took school disciplinary action.
- A person reported a student was blackmailing a classmate and sending inappropriate photos of that classmate to their peers. School teams investigated, spoke with the student and their parent, took disciplinary action, facilitated a restorative conversation with the student, and arranged counseling for them.
Safe2Tell is a successful violence intervention and prevention program for students to anonymously report threats to their own, and others’, safety. Safe2Tell is not an emergency response unit nor mental health counseling service provider; it is an information pathway for distributing anonymous reports to local law enforcement and school officials required by state law.
To make a report, individuals can call 1-877-542-7233 from anywhere, at any time. Reports also can be made at Safe2Tell.org, by texting S2TCO to 738477, or through the Safe2Tell mobile app which is available on the Apple App Store or Google Play.
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