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The Bradley County Schools system has implemented a new program to help keep children safe. TIPS: Threat Assessment, Incident Management and Prevention Services, an award‐winning web‐based risk management and incident reporting platform from Awareity. The TIPS platform is successfully being used in multiple school districts across the United States to identify, prevent and effectively intervene in threatening behaviors. TIPS provides an avenue for all students, parents, faculty, staff and community members to safely report disconcerting behaviors, suspicious incidents, or general safety/security concerns to school staff and the school resource officer, or SRO. Reporting may be made anonymously or openly. Concerns which may be reported include,Read More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Incident Reporting, Risk Management, School Safety

  Last month, A 17-year-old Texas student committed suicide in a high school courtyard.  The student posted two Facebook updates that morning–one saying he was planning on committing suicide, and another with him pointing a gun at his head. In his message, he said, “I don’t know if this is going to affect people or if ya’ll are even going to care but I just want to say I’m taking my life away…” A quote from another student after the shooting  – “He said he was going through a lot of stuff. He put pictures up before he did it. Nobody believed him until heRead More →

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Data breaches, personally identifiable information exposed, phishing, passwords hacked, credit card numbers stolen – incidents that happen all too often in today’s word. Virginia’s Board of Accountancy, however, is taking security awareness training to a new level to help ensure their employees know how to protect information and reduce human error. In May, the Board of Accountancy (BOA), implemented a comprehensive web‐based platform from Awareity called MOAT (Managed Ongoing Awareness and Trust). Available on a Virginia State Contract, Awareity’s award‐winning MOAT services help organizations manage escalating costs and obligations associated with information security awareness, privacy, compliance, risk management, public safety/security, internal controls, incident reporting andRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, School Safety, Uncategorized

  A child or parent reports bullying during the parent-teacher conference.  Then what?  What constitutes bullying?  What should a teacher do with this report?  Who does the information get shared with?  What type of investigation needs to be done?  Do you talk with the bully and victim together or separately or both?  Should you call in the other parents?   How much information can you give them?  What are the consequences for bullying? Is the situation getting better?  How do you know?  Has it gotten worse?  Are you monitoring behaviors ongoing?  Maybe the bullying stopped in your classroom, but do you know if it is goingRead More →

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New Hampton School, a selective boarding school located in the in the foothills of New Hampshire’s White Mountains, has implemented Awareity’s TIPS platform to improve faculty and staff support and communications. Founded in 1821, New Hampton School has a philosophy based on two values: respect and responsibility. Healthy relationships between students and adults and educating the whole student are paramount in the community. In order to build those positive adult relationships, one of the School’s major initiatives has recently been to become one of the most desirable independent schools to work for. Through careful consideration of employee work load, targeted allocation of financial and non‐financialRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, School Safety, Uncategorized

  If you or your child is being bullied by classmates, you have probably reported the bullying to someone at the school.  But, then what?   How was the issue addressed by the school?  Did they talk to the bully or punish the bully?  Did the situation get better?  Did the situation get worse? Regardless of how serious or small the issue is or feels, one of the most important steps for students and parents to remember when reporting a situation is DOCUMENTATION! DOCUMENT EVERYTHING. If you are meeting with a teacher or principal, come prepared with proof and examples of when and where the bullyingRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, School Safety

  Headlines from the first month of school are troubling with stabbings, suicides, murder, bullying, cyberbullying and numerous other incidents. Even more troubling is that most of the incidents look like they were PREVENTABLE had the schools had the right tools to get the right information (concerning behaviors, threats, escalations, etc.) to the right people in the right places at the right time so the right people could do the right things…right away. For example, the following messages were released on social media days/weeks BEFORE this student committed suicide on the first day of school: “I have chosen to go with 3 peoples advice andRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Business Continuity, Emergency Management, Risk Management

  Can you prevent acts of Mother Nature?  No. Can you prevent tragic acts of Humans?  YES! Over 30 years ago, I started working for a large data processing organization and we processed data for nearly 400 banks.  One of my job responsibilities was to be part of the Disaster Recovery Team – yes that is what it was called back then.  Our goal was to be prepared to react to different types of disasters and make sure our clients (nearly 400 banks) were still delivering their services to their customers. Today most organizations have renamed their Disaster Recovery department/team to Business Continuity, Emergency Response,Read More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Education, Regulatory Compliance, Risk Management, School Safety, Success

Awareity’s Rick Shaw recently had the opportunity to speak with Tulsa Public Schools’ Assistant Athletic Director Mick Wilson.   TPS is always looking for ways to save time and improve the way the athletic department manages their obligations and Wilson shares several tips for improving compliance and touches on hot topics like concussions, training, etc. A quick excerpt from the interview is below.  To hear the full 15 minute segment, click here.   How is TIPS improving the way you make coaches aware of new information and training? The biggest thing we have been able to do so far is really to get the information outRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, School Safety

  Guest Post from Tina Long After her son Tyler’s peer abuse driven bullycide in 2009, Tina Long has worked along with her husband, David, to stop bullying and make schools accountable for our children’s safety. She has traveled the country to promote awareness of the severity and damage that bullying can cause. David and Tina have appeared on The Ellen Show, 20/20, Nightline, and many other programs. They both spoke at a caucus on bullying in Washington, D.C.  Tina is currently working on the project Everything Starts with 1 along with Awareity and continues to be an anti-bullying advocate.     I Remember: *I rememberRead More →