Gaggle Speaks

Ideas, news, and advice for K-12 educators and administrators to help create safe learning environments.

close
Written by Corey Tutewiler
on October 18, 2017

Risk is everywhere in our lives. For K-12 schools, risk management solutions include worker’s compensation and personal liability, background checks for criminal records and proper insurance coverages.

Since the 1990s, more focus has been placed on safety drills, surveillance, building security and other tactics due to onsite student assaults.

About 75 percent of the assault claims made to United Educators: Prevention and Protection for Education were of a sexual nature. Many involved adult suspects and student victims. Given the amount of information students document in school- and district-provided online learning solutions, Gaggle Safety Management aligns itself well with your Risk Management initiatives.

Here are three types of situations where Gaggle can prevent a possible liability.

Harassment & Discrimination

Risk Management has started to take into account lawsuits involving harassment or discrimination based on race, sexuality, gender and similar socially controversial subjects.

When harassment, discrimination and hate speech occur within your online learning environment (whether G Suite for Education, Office 365 or Canvas LMS), you have emergency contacts who are notified, so that you can intervene as early as possible, before situations escalate.

Inappropriate Relationships Between Teachers & Students

Gaggle Safety Representatives can unearth inappropriate conversations and relationships between teachers and students. When those involved in inappropriate teacher-student relationships use school resources as a means of communication, you have the ability to bring resolution to the situation at your fingertips.

Schools and districts who don’t monitor all communications will be less likely to discover these incidents while they’re taking place. This is why we provide 24/7/365 content analysis and expert review of communications and files.

Student Suicide

When a student communicates intent to commit suicide through school resources such as a school-provide email account, or documents their intent within a Drive file, the school once again has the means to providing early warning detection and getting the student much needed help.

But the task of discovering true threats of suicide is exceedingly difficult based on simple “word filters.” This past school year, Gaggle has intervened in more than 200 instances in which students expressed intentions to end their lives, and we intervened in several thousand instances of students who were considering or partaking in actions that can be described as self harm.

These are just three ways Gaggle Safety Management can easily be aligned with a school or district’s Risk Management initiatives. Let us know if you can think of more.

Let Us Know What You Thought About This Post.

Put your comment below.

You may also like:

Professional Development Student Safety

Is Cyberbullying Illegal in Your State?

Social media and mobile technology has made it easy for bullies to continue their behavior on every corner of the intern...

Professional Development SEL Educator Wellness

5 Ways to Support Educator Mental Health

The past year has been particularly demanding of educators’ mental and emotional energy, which has had a direct impact o...