At South Kingstown Public Schools in Rhode Island, the district oversees 2,900 students across seven schools. Students in grades 7–12 are part of their take-home 1:1 program, with email addresses and capabilities distributed by the district through Google Classroom.
Shortly after introducing this initiative, the district recognized the need to put a student safety platform in place. According to Director of Technology Doug Snow, the district’s IT directors had immediate concerns about the Google tools and how students could be using them for potentially harmful situations. “We had no way of seeing what they were doing,” said Snow.
Along with getting a better idea of how students were using the technology, the district wanted to give them a safe space to come forward about cyberbullying, drugs, and other issues. As part of their Gaggle student safety platform implementation, the district also adopted Gaggle SpeakUp for Safety, offering students the ability to voice concerns without feeling as though they’ll get themselves or their peers in trouble.
Once submitted, those concerns are looked into by Gaggle’s professionals, who contact law enforcement to intervene in severe cases. “We’ve received calls at 2:00am telling us that someone was contemplating suicide,” recalled Snow. “We jumped on it, talked to the parents, and handled the situation successfully.”
This 24/7/365 service allows Snow and the district to keep students safe. The fact that Gaggle provides a heads-up on issues, especially those that put students in danger, makes it well worth the investment. “It’s worth every penny,” said Snow. “If it saves just one student—or prevents him or her from going down a certain path—then it works.”
Read the case study to learn more about how South Kingstown Public Schools keeps its students safe with Gaggle.
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