(The Center Square) – The biggest chunk of the tips to Wisconsin’s Speak Up, Speak Out school safety line last year were about bullying.
Attorney General Josh Kaul recently released the yearly report on the school safety line.
“Speak Up, Speak Out has been a resource for students and others to report concerns about safety and student well-being,” Kaul said in a statement. “As the numbers show, this resource is being used a lot, helping to make schools safer.”
Almost a third, or more than 2,200 of the nearly 7,000 tips were about bullying. The next largest set of tips, 505, was for vaping.
Less than 2% of the tips to the Speak Up, Speak Out line, 136, involved guns or weapons. While a little more than 2% of tips,145, involved some kind of sexual misconduct.
Kaul’s report does not differentiate between sexual misconduct cases between students and sexual misconduct cases involving teachers. There are also few details about how severe the threats or the cases of bullying are.
Kaul’s report does say that 14% of tips to the Speak Up, Speak Out line are of imminent concern.
“Tips that are potentially life-saving such as planned school attack, guns/weapons, concerns of suicide,” the report states.
The report adds that 11% of tips are elevated concerns.
“Tips that concern violence, criminal activity, or self-harm that has recently occurred or is highly likely to occur,” the report notes.
The rest,75% of tips, are simply defined as concerns.
