SafeSchools Alert Offers Additional Services to Lake Washington School District

Students, staff and parents in Lake Washington School District (LWSD) now have multiple ways to report tips on bullying, harassment or other threats to school safety.

Previously, people only had one way to report tips. Now, in addition to being able to call in to report, they can report by email or text. There is also a website where people can report their tips.

To call or text in a report, the phone number is (425) 529-5763. The website is http://1342.alert1.us and the email address is [email protected].

LWSD communications director Kathryn Reith said the district has had a phone number that people could call to report tips for many years.

“It’s been quite a while,” she said, adding that the reporting phone number has changed to one that now accepts text messages.

The additional services, she said, are offerings from the district’s partner SafeSchools Alert, the K-12 safety and compliance brand of Scenario Learning.

“We applaud Lake Washington School District for their commitment to increasing safety for all staff and students,” said Laura Bahar, marketing manager for Scenario Learning.

Bahar said the company develops safety and compliance solutions used by thousands of schools, colleges, businesses and insurance providers around the world.

According to the company’s mission statement, Scenario Learning, which has been around since 2004, is committed to creating safer and more inclusive learning environments around the world.

“We believe every student deserves to go to school free of fear, and that’s why we developed the SafeSchools Alert System,” Bahar said. “SafeSchools Alert empowers students, staff and parents to quickly, easily and anonymously report safety concerns, including bullying, harassment, intimidation and threats of violence 24/7/365 via phone, text, email and website.”

She said once a tip is submitted, tipsters can easily check on the status of their tip and communicate to school officials and even remain anonymous. School officials are notified through email when a tip is created. Bahar added that the incident reporting system gives districts valuable information about safety trends.

“For instance, if a particular school in the district experiences an uptick in reports of bullying and or harassment compared to others, school administrators can look into it and develop safety plans to combat the behavior,” she said.

Examples of situations and scenarios people should report include bullying, harassment, if they know a student has access to a weapon or if a student is using drugs.

“We want to learn about it so we can check it out,” Reith said.