Texting Our Way to Safety

In a recent article on wbaltv.com (http://www.wbaltv.com/news/18912265/detail.html), it was reported that Baltimore City police are considering opening an anonymous bullying/violence texting line for Baltimore City students. This idea comes with the news that 1/3 of our students do not feel safe at their school and on the heels of a recent killing at William H. Lemmel, according to the article. Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the city council president, says the anonymous aspect will allow any concerned party (students, teachers, parents) to not be labeled as a snitch. With an estimated 456 gang members in BCPSS, there seems to be some real danger posed to our students.

The idea of violence in our schools is scary, and I believe we should do all that we can to help our students feel safe in their learning environments. If it means purchasing metal detectors, hiring more school police officers, or putting more than one teacher in the most dangerous classrooms, then I say that we need to find the money. I realize that Mayor Dixon just announced major budget cuts citywide, but in an ideal world we’d have sufficient funds to create the best possible learning environments for all of our students. Students should never have to be afraid to come to school, regardless of where they come from. I think the text line is a good idea, in theory. However, in practice, it doesn’t have a good chance of working. Students are told that they may not have cell phones in school, and while many children don’t listen, countless teachers try to enforce that rule. Opening a text line is a direct contradiction of that rule and would give the students an excuse to whip out a cell phone whenever they felt like it. A student could just say that they felt threatened or unsafe and in reality be sending a text to their friend in the classroom next door. Further, I would be wary of prank texters. I think many teachers in our system are quite aware of the capacity of our students to elaborate on falsehoods just for entertainment value.

On the positive side, gearing a hotline towards students’ interests (we all know how popular texting has become!) could prove successful. If used in an appropriate way and outside of school hours, the proposed texting hotline may become a helpful avenue to increasing school safety.