92 percent of districts renew subscription to Gaggle’s student safety solution annually
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (May 15, 2019) – Gaggle’s award-winning student safety solution has been instrumental in helping districts save the lives of over 640 students so far this school year. These students had plans to commit suicide within the next 24 hours. With such a strong record, Gaggle has retained the majority of its subscribers, with 92 percent of districts renewing their Gaggle partnership year after year.
Recently, districts such as Denver Public Schools, Colorado; Cincinnati Public Schools, Ohio and Polk County Public Schools, Florida, along with multiple districts across the country, extended their partnerships with Gaggle and remain vigilant in ensuring student safety in and outside of school hours.
“Ensuring the safety and well-being of our students is a task with many layers. As our classrooms embrace technology and our students have it at their fingertips, we rely on our partnership with Gaggle to keep them safe,” said Melissa Craven, Denver Public School’s Director of Emergency Management. “With almost 1,000,000 documents reviewed annually, we rest easy knowing Gaggle is monitoring our students online.”
For 20 years, Gaggle’s safety solutions have gone far beyond internet security by helping districts support the social-emotional health of students and protecting against district liability. The insight gained into student behavior and efforts to make sure students are using digital tools correctly can’t be overstated.
“Gaggle is on the frontline protecting nearly 5 million students against cyberbullying, self-harm, offensive content and many other harmful situations. Districts trust their Gaggle partnership to help schools remain a safe haven for learning,” said Jeff Patterson, Gaggle CEO. “In just the first half of this academic year, we alerted district-appointed emergency contacts of more than 50,000 safety concerns. We also alerted our customers to an additional 358,878 non-emergency documents and emails and blocked and reported over 1,700 instances of child pornography.”
The solution constantly scans accounts for harmful content, enabling educators to intervene in dangerous situations 24 hours per day, seven days a week. Gaggle’s safety management uses a combination of artificial intelligence and human safety experts to review students’ online activity. The solution works within Google’s G Suite, Microsoft Office 365 and the Canvas learning management system. An in-house team of trained professionals evaluates flagged content, categorizes incidents and determines their severity. Gaggle then alerts school officials of students showing signs of self-harm, depression, thoughts of suicide, substance abuse, cyberbullying and credible threats of violence against other students.
Additionally, Gaggle complies with state and national regulations when dealing with pornography involving minors. The company works directly with the National Center of Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), eliminating schools’ burden of handling indecent material.
Schools partnering with Gaggle also have access to its safety tipline, SpeakUp, which integrates with G Suite for Education and Office 365. SpeakUp gives students an outlet to report situations like bullying, fights, students in crisis and threats of violence.
Craven concluded, “Gaggle has a team of professionals that work around the clock. Knowing critical matters pertaining to our students will be seen and addressed immediately is necessary to our safety program. And while we receive alerts daily, not every alert requires a response by the Department of Safety. However, over the last week we have received alerts regarding students’ depression, suicide and abuse. Our partnership with Gaggle allowed us to intervene immediately and help our students.”
About Gaggle
Gaggle has been providing school safety products and solutions to the K-12 market since 1999. Using both artificial intelligence and trained safety experts, Gaggle’s early-warning system proactively assists districts 24/7/365 in the prevention of suicide, bullying, inappropriate behaviors, school violence, and other harmful situations. Gaggle has helped hundreds of districts avoid tragedies and save lives, while also protecting their liability. For more information please visit www.gaggle.net and follow Gaggle on Twitter at @Gaggle_K12.