Less Than 2%
Not even 250 of the more than 5,000 tips to Wisconsin’s school safety tip line had anything to do with weapons or planned school attacks.
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul released his 2023-2024 Speak Up, Speak Out report.
The report details the work from Kaul’s Office Of School Safety, including calls to the tip line.
“Speak Up, Speak Out has been a remarkable success, assisting an increasing number of students and helping many schools that are working to take a comprehensive approach to school safety,” Kaul said in a statement.
The tip line got more than 5,200 tips during the 2023-2024 school year. The report says the overwhelming majority of them, 1,911, were about bullying or cyberbullying.
“Since the inception of SUSO in 2020, bullying has consistently been the number one tip,m” the report states. “It is also common nationally for bullying to be the most reported tip. Awareness of these incidents helps schools intervene early, before grievances and upsets can lead children down a pathway to violence.”
The report adds that tips about actual threats are rare.
The Office of School Safety reported just 114 tips about “concerns about planned school attacks.” There were 135 other tips about guns/weapons.explosives.
The report did not say how many of those tips turned-out to be credible threats.
The Speak Up, Speak Out report did include a quote from the superintendent at Mount Horeb Schools which saw a student bring an air rifle to school, and die when police shot him.
"The Office of School Safety support has been nothing short of extraordinary in their response to our District's tragedy,” Superintendent Steve Salerno said in the report. “Their dedication and expertise have been a beacon of hope and reassurance during this challenging time, helping us navigate recovery with resilience and strength. From the day of our event to four months after the event, they've been a tremendous resource."
The Speak Up, Speak Out tip line is just half of the Office of School Safety’s job.
The other half is collecting blueprints for schools across the state, and training local school leaders about safety.
The report details those training efforts.
"School-based threat assessment teams provide valuable interventions to prevent violence," the report states. "OSS provides full day, no cost Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management trainings to multidisciplinary teams of school administrators, school mental health professionals, security personnel, and law enforcement. The training empowers teams to determine if someone poses a threat to the school community and intervene effectively."
The Office of School safety could be headed for a budget fight in the new year.
A-G Kaul asked lawmakers last year for $1.5 million to expand the Office of School Safety, particularly the Speak Up, Speak Out tip line.
He ultimately decided to use leftover COVID stimulus money to pay for the tip line. But that money is set to run out at the end of the current state budget, and will need to be replaced.
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