Students To Fight Bullying With Technology

A leading education technology company  announced on Wednesday, it would give schools a free and confidential way for students to tell school officials via text that they are being bullied or are witnessing bullying. Blackboard’s TipTxt program could change the school climate — or reveal just how pervasive student-on-student harassment has become.

Blackboard, will offer the service for free starting immediately. Texts sent through the confidential program will be routed to school officials, who then will determine how to investigate. The company has tested the system in a several schools. Official declined to predict how many schools would embrace the system or how much it would cost the company. But given the company’s reach — 31,000 school districts already use Blackboard products to allow administrators to keep track of student records — it could be an easy sell.

The Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics reported 29 percent of students ages 12 to 18 reported being bullied at school or online. The department’s statistical arm included in its definition of bullying name calling, rumors, physical harm or exclusion from activities.

Blackboard says students will be able to text a number posted in school hallways or in handbooks with details of an incident. Example- a student could text that he is seeing someone knock books from another student’s hands in the hallway or that someone is walking down the hall crying.

The system would send an automated reply to the student texter that someone is looking into it and then alert a designated school official who monitors the text feeds.If the school official needs more information, he or she can text back to the student.

Potential For Abuse-School and company officials alike said they would have to weigh what is credible and what is bogus on a case-by-case basis. They do not want bully-reporting systems to become a tool to bully students.