The BullyBøx, an application available on both iPhone and Android devices, allows students to anonymously report bullying or safety concerns to a school’s administrators, as described by Rebecca Gentile, the district's director of technology, at the board's Oct. 19 work session. Even for those individuals who do not have smart phones, the anonymous reporting form can be found on the website bullyboxreport.com.
The reports, which can include photographs, will be sent to the school's principals and school resource officer Nicolas Mogel, Gentile said. The application is locked based on a school password and would cost the district $499 yearly.
Reports containing certain words, like "gun," "bomb" or "kill," can be flagged automatically by the application, Gentile said. These reports could then be sent to the administrators as a priority matter with special alerts, she said.
While Mogel initially requested the idea, the board on Oct. 19 expressed some concerns about the ability to attach photographs and the potential for the invasion of privacy. Using technology instead of reporting things in person is how the students function, Superintendent Tom Washington told the board on Oct. 19. “I don’t function that way, but it’s a different world.”
Monday's vote followed a public comment from Herb Riede, a resident of Meadville with two children in the district, who spoke at the beginning of the meeting. Riede expressed that the current social media channels of the school are not being optimized, citing an incident when he used Facebook to contact a teacher about a local party for high school students that would have alcohol. Because of this, he does not foresee the app being useful or well-utilized.
“I don’t believe that the app is actually necessary," Riede told the board. "It seems like a solution without a need. You’re solving a problem that doesn’t yet exist. That could be done in other ways, other communication channels."
With Facebook or Twitter, though, students lack the ability to be anonymous, which board President Jan VanTuil and Washington felt could be significant in terms of reporting potential bullying incidents.
"(Anonymity) won't hurt," VanTuil said.
Washington also believes the fear of being labeled a tattle-tale by other students may also limit how often students report bullying. The BullyBøx website cites that about 56 percent of students witness bullying at some point during their education, and this anonymity may help that 56 percent come forward.
"It's an opportunity for (students) to discuss that there’s a problem and still be behind the curtain, and that’s a great way to do it," board member John Amato said. "That’s the other thing that we have to look at: the fact that there are those kids who will sit and take it because they don’t feel safe (reporting), and it’s just who they are.”
Although the ability to submit photographs with the reports was a major concern during the work session, the board's attorney, Carl Moore, no longer believes that to be an issue, he announced on Monday.
"My understanding is that the pictures would be secure, and they wouldn’t be out there for the world to see," Moore told the board. This includes certain restrictions such as only a few staff members having access to the photographs and reports.
A 7-2 vote led to the approval of the use of the application at MASH for one calendar year, at which point the board could assess the success of the app and consider continuing use or expanding use to other school buildings in the district.
Board members Frank Schreck and Tuttle voted against use of the application.
"I just don’t trust that (app)," Tuttle said after casting his dissenting vote. "I think it opens up a can of worms that we don’t want to open up. I just don’t support it.”
"I think this is just another example of this district relieving the people in authority from keeping a sharp eye on things and relying more and more on a solution for something that doesn’t exist yet," Schreck told the board. "My vote is no on this because I don’t think we need it. However, if it comes from our resource officer, I was never in support of that either for the same reasons."
Board member Jon DeArment expressed the potential worth of the app immediately before the vote.
"I think if having this app helps one student who's having a hard time, it is worth the $500," he said.
©2015 The Meadville Tribune (Meadville, Pa.), Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
