COLORADO SPRINGS — A concerned middle school parent called us saying their daughter was in a fight after school and police were not contacted.
I wanted to know how fights and bullying are handled during the school day and even after the bell in Colorado Springs School District 11.
The mom, Tammy Town, told me the fight happened at Galileo.
"They are supposed to be protected throughout the day and I don't feel like that's happening," said Town.
Town said bullying is not being taken seriously, "just been ongoing since like elementary and the teachers and principals brush it off as kids being kids and it's not always that."
I met with the district's head of security, David Allison.
He said it's more challenging for school resource and security officers to handle incidents after school.
"They're getting off at the same time some of the incidents are happening, if it's not a major incident, a lot of times, we just gather all the information and the resource officer picks it up the next morning," said Allison.
Allison said police or medics are called if a kid could potentially be criminally charged or is severely hurt from a fight.
"She wasn't badly hurt, she got a couple scrapes in the face, little bit of bruising, ribs hurt, no broken ribs or anything," said Town.
Allison told me district security works with school resource officers, who are contracted with Colorado Springs Police, to investigate all incidents.
"Fights are usually 9 times out of 10 will happen during the day, so they're here and if it's a mutual fight, they usually pretty much let the school handle it, because they don't want to charge both kids and get them into the court system," said Allison.
Safe2Tell Colorado is an anonymous way of reporting bullying, drugs, threats or school complaints. Last school year, Safe2Tell recorded the highest-ever reported volume since its inception in 2004.
Bullying has more self-reports than any other category.
Town said she called the safe2tell Colorado hotline for bullying concerns, "probably once or twice so far."
Allison his team looks into every Safe2Tell report. Those reports can be made online, by phone call, text or through the app.
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