January 2, 2024
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The Helena Public School District plans to launch a new mobile application for all grades that will become much more than an anonymous tip line for students and staff.The Montana Cares Program is an application ran by the company STOPit Solutions which specializes in safety software for businesses and schools around the nation.
The company started in 2013 as an anti-cyberbullying software to give everyone a voice and the ability to seek help in difficult situations according to the company’s website.
The website continues by mentioning that the company serves over 8,000 companies across the nation giving the businesses ways to create safer workspaces and classrooms.
The Montana Cares Program will feature three areas according to Lona Carter, a Helena Public Schools employee, said at the Dec. 12 board of trustees meeting.
“If students hear something, see something, they can say something,” Helena Public Schools superintendent Rex Weltz said.
The areas mentioned include resources, the 988 national suicide hotline and a tip line for “anything.”
The resources on the app will feature connections to basic needs services offered in Helena for example food insecurity or if a family is wondering who to call if they cannot keep the heat on in their house according to Carter.
STOPit’s website mentions that the district can benefit by decreasing the stigma around mental health and normalizing asking for help.
Another are is the notional suicide hotline that will offer 24/7 365 day care for anyone in need via text or phone call.
“It is either a voice or a text tip line. Lots of folks don’t want to talk to somebody, they want to talk to somebody by texting and it provides them a platform by which they can talk to a trained professional,” Carter said.
Lastly, the third area of coverage within the app will be an anonymous tip line that “is not just for scary bad things.”
The tip line can allow the caller to stay anonymous if they wish. An example given by Carter at the meeting was if a student has a friend that is homeless they can report that to the line and the app will alert others to give the homeless student a call or notification.
Weltz mentioned that something the district has been focusing on is where the students’ information will be stored because he did not want to leave a “digital footprint” since the data is personal.
The school district plans to launch the application in January district-wide as the first AA school district in Montana to be signed onto the application.
The company is giving the district a year and a half to test it out and see if it works for the district. The application will be funded through a federal grant from the Department of Justice and will not take money from the district’s budget.
No specific price point was given at the meeting if the district decided to keep the application after the trial period.
Parents will be contacted from their respective schools about the launching of the application early next year.
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