East Holmes Schools Launch Anonymous Tip System to Improve Student Safety

East Holmes Local School District launched the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System last week, partnering with Sandy Hook Promise to give students in grades 4 through 12 a confidential channel to report concerns ranging from bullying to potential threats of violence.

Through the app-based platform, students submit tips to a trained team that monitors and manages incoming reports, with the program designed to enable intervention before a crisis occurs. Sandy Hook Promise, the nonprofit organization behind the system, describes it as the only anonymous reporting system that offers what it calls a complete school safety solution.

The Say Something ARS pairs anonymous reporting with an educational component, teaching students to recognize warning signs of violence and self-harm through a three-step reporting model. Sandy Hook Promise describes students who use the system to report concerns on behalf of peers as "Upstanders," and says the embedded program has been proven to increase students' awareness of warning signs and their willingness to report mental distress and potential threats.

Students access the system through the Say Something ARS phone app. Tips submitted through the app go to a trained team that monitors and manages reports on the district's behalf.

Sandy Hook Promise funds a portion of the program's rollout nationally through donor contributions. The organization notes that its donors help subsidize implementations of the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System in school districts across the country, though the district has not publicly disclosed whether the East Holmes launch was covered in full or in part through that subsidy.

The district has not released the names of administrators overseeing the program or detailed its internal protocols for escalating tips to school staff or law enforcement.