Springfield Public Schools has a new tip line to allow anyone with a concern to more easily share it with school officials.
Tips can be submitted anonymously via text at (417) 319-2901, online or through the MySPS app, and tipsters remain anonymous.
SPS spokesman, Stephen Hall, said the tip line is monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week by school police, so any tip will be promptly investigated.
"Each and every tip will be followed up on. We take each and every tip seriously, and this is one more way that we want to engage with our students and let them know that we share their concern for school safety and security. That is our number one priority, and we want them to know that anytime they have a concern we want them to share it," Hall said.
Hall encourages anyone who uses the tip line to be as specific as possible so officials can quickly investigate the concern.
Concerns can include things like school safety, bullying or thoughts of suicide—any type of safety threat that a person wants the district to look into, according to Hall.
"If there's a concern, if you see something or hear something and it just doesn't feel right, we want students to feel comfortable sharing it with us, and so what we've said to them is, 'you tell us, and we will take care of it,'" Hall said.
Posters have been put up at all SPS school facilities to let students know about the tip line and to encourage them to use it.
The tip line is one of several security measures SPS has implemented recently. This year's budget for Springfield Public Schools includes $4.3 million for additional training, upgraded door locks, additional security cameras and three more school police officers, according to Hall. The district is looking at how it can increase the number of secure vestibules at facilities that don't currently have those, he said.
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