School and law enforcement have said their best tool to prevent violence in schools is the OK2SAY tipline.
Anyone is able to report tips confidentially on criminal activities or potential harm directed at students, school employees or schools. Tips can be sent in anytime.
The tip line was put into place in 2014. Michigan State Police said the tipline hasn’t stopped ringing and is one of the most valuable resources to understand threats kids are facing and how to better keep them safe.
“There are a lot of things that go on within school systems in children’s lives that neither the parents or the school know about and it’s because just children don’t let it out,” Michigan State Police Sgt. Carlos Fossati said.
OK2SAY separates calls into tips and incidents. Tips are any call and incidents are multiple calls about the same tip. According to the OK2SAY annual report, the tipline has fielded more than 3,700 tips and 3,600 incidents in 2020.
“We try to come from a position of not accusing them but wanting to understand and that we’re here to listen to them,” Fossati said.
The highest reported tips were about suicide threats, followed by drugs, mental health issues and then cyberbullying. It’s important to note that tips to OK2SAY are confidential.