Michigan’s student safety tip line has seen an increase of calls related to school threats, but authorities say it may not reflect an increase in actual school threats.
The state student tip line, OKAY2SAY, saw 670 total tips in February 2018, an all time high.
Andrea Bitely is with the office of the Attorney General. She said there was a sharp increase in tips related to school threats.
“We saw 119 planned school attack tips for the month of February 2018. That is nearly as many as we saw in the entire year of 2017.”
Bitely says the increase in tips may reflect an increase in awareness of OKAY2SAY and in public concern following the current media attention around school shootings.
First Lieutenant Michael Shaw is with the Michigan State Police. He said the increased attention may be good for local schools.
“We’re still seeing unsecured doors when we look at these schools. The kid in Florida go in through an unsecured door. We still see them in our schools, that’s something we can tighten up with the school district.”
Shaw says the increase in tips - and conversations - may lead schools to enact stronger policies around school safety.