In a concerning trend, students across Colorado are reporting more safety and bullying concerns. The latest numbers from Safe2Tell Colorado show a significant increase in reports from February compared to the month prior.
Safe2Tell was started by the Colorado Assembly in 2017 and gives students and the community an anonymous way to report safety concerns.
The program then passes these reports along to local law enforcement and school officials for further action.
In February, the Safe2Tell hotline received 2,854 reports, marking more than a 12% increase from January.
The bulk of these reports were related to school safety and staff concerns, along with reports of bullying and mental health issues.
The numbers show that reports to Safe2Tell have also increased during this school year.
From August to February last year, the hotline received more than 18,000 reports.
During the same period this school year, that number has jumped to 20,736 reports.
We spoke with Attorney General Phil Weiser about the increase in Safe2Tell reports. He tells News5 about the impact Safe2Tell has on our kiddos.
“Safe to Tell is there to keep people safe, and we know there's more concerns. Kids are hurting; mental health issues among young people are increasingly a problem, and that's showing itself up in these statistics. Whatever the situation is, Safe2Tell wants to make sure that we address it appropriately and quickly,” says Weiser.
The program is making an impact. Safe2Tell is being used correctly, with 96.3% of reports validated as legitimate.
Reporting anonymously helps students to feel safe speaking up when they see something.
Phil Weiser explains why he thinks this spike is happening.
“Bullying comes up again and again, and notably with the world we live in on social media, it's easier than ever to engage in bullying and harassment, which can happen during the school day, even to kids. We've got to be in this work together as parents, as school leaders, as community members, investing in our kids is crucial. Our future and our kids are not doing OK,” he said.
Weiser says the most important thing is for parents to have those conversations with their kids, check in on them, and do their best to monitor their kiddos phone usage.
Click here to make a report.
You can call safe to tell at this number:
1.877.542.7233
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