Elkhorn Area High School’s TipSoft offers students way to text anonymous tips about crime and bullying
By Kellen Olshefski
Editor
With bullying becoming ever more prominent in the public eye, due in part to the rise of social media over the past decade and its use among teens, Elkhorn Area High School, in conjunction with the Walworth County Sheriff’s Department, is unveiling a new, anonymous way for students to report not only bullying, but crime as well: TipSoft.
According to Police School Liaison Officer Joe Kirkpatrick, through TipSoft, though it’s in its infancy, allows students a 24-hour per day opportunity to anonymously report bullying, crimes, fights and other activity.
With texting being a part of the digital age, Kirkpatrick said all students have to do is send a text to CRIMES (274637) beginning with tip4wc, and they’ll receive a response right away.
“When you enter your complaint, you put, ‘I’m being bullied by Johnny Jones at the high school,’ the sheriffs department would receive that, and they would text and email me,” he said.
Kirkpatrick said one of the biggest aspects leading to the drive to create this program was the issue of bullying and harassment.
“That’s what the administration liked a lot,” he said. “It’s a way for students to anonymously submit reports…and it’s a two way text directly to the sheriffs department.”
Kirkpatrick said reports will initially come to him from the sheriffs department. However, if he doesn’t respond within a few minutes, in the event he is ill or in training, all hope is not lost for students in need.
“That was probably the biggest concern, if we’re going to do this, we have to do it so it’s monitored 24-7,” he said. “There’s after school events right from the time the bell rings until sometimes 10 o’clock at night.”
Depending on how critical the issue is, be it a bullying issue that can be handled by Kirkpatrick the next day at school or a drug deal about to occur, the sheriff’s department would determine the appropriate action from there.
Kirkpatrick said the program was developed over the past few months after Walworth County Sheriffs Deputy Dan Nelson, the county’s representative for Operation Click, brought it to his attention and asked him if it was something he’d be interested in. After discussions with Elkhorn Police Department officials, Kirkpatrick said they got the ball rolling.
“We thought it would be a nice tool for the kids to have to report things like this,” he said.
Currently, the program is fully functional in a pilot stage, only available at the high school. However, Kirkpatrick said the hope is that it will be citywide in the future.
Bullying in schools
According to statistics from the National Education Association, one in three American schoolchildren in grades six through 10 are targets of bullying behavior, experience in extreme fear and stress, often resulting in a fear of going to school, a public restroom and riding the bus, as well as more severe side effects such as physical illness and a diminished ability to learn.
Kirkpatrick said when it comes to reporting bullying and crimes, some students often have a hard time breaking the barrier of his door with students passing by.
“Oh, they’re snitching, you know, that type of thing,” he said. “This is a way they can be sitting in the hallway, or their study hall time, and if they’re getting picked on, they have a voice.”
While Kirkpatrick said he doesn’t believe bullying is more prominent in Elkhorn schools than before, he admits it is much more in the public eye, especially with cyber bullying through social media and text messages.
In his tenth year with the schools, Kirkpatrick said he’s fortunate most of the students know who he is and are comfortable with him, though students still find it difficult to physically approach adults and report bullying or crime situations out of fear of retaliation from their attacker.
According to Kirkpatrick, a lot of times with parental concerns as to why bullying issues haven’t been resolved, the first question police and administration ask is if it’s ever been reported, which is often answered with a “no.”
“We have to know about it, before we can do something about it…you have to report it,” he said.
“Bullying can ruin kids’ days…I see them come in here, they’re in tears, they don’t want to come to school, they start missing school and then they have a truancy issue because they’re not comfortable here.
“It’s just a matter of getting it out there…the parents want something to be done, and I think we have a great system here. It’s going to be nice for students to be able to have that.”
