Students texting tips to school resource officers in Monroe Co.

Students texting tips to school resource officers in Monroe Co.

By JILL MCNEAL
6 News Anchor/Reporter

MADISONVILLE (WATE) -- A new high tech program to keep students safe in Monroe County is already seeing positive results. Students can text anonymous tips to school resource officers (SROs) about weapons, drugs, bullying and more.

Each of the county's six SROs now has his own cell phone. They will use them only for anonymous texts and calls to and from students.

Teens are never far from their cells phones and texting is their preferred mode of communication.

So SRO Capt.. David Kirkland, who'd never sent a text in his life, decided he needed to tap into all that insider information.

"I see them working both thumbs walking down the halls here and having a conversation at the same time and I thought, surely I can do it, but it's very slowly," Kirkland says.

Since he started the anonymous texting tip line earlier this week, he's gotten several messages. The first came less than an hour after it started. 

"As soon as they got on the bus and got settled in and were moving, I got a text," Kirkland says.

He won't say what that text was about, but the response has let him know he's on the right track.

"Some people are afraid to go tell teachers that they're getting bullied because they're afraid someone is going to come beat them up or something because they told on them. But now, they can text anonymously and they don't get in trouble for it," says Sequoyah High School freshman Jessica Bastianelli.

U.S. Cellular is providing the SRO phones and the texting service free to the school system.

Monroe County students are only allowed to use their cell phones during lunch.

Four Knox County Schools began a similar text-a-tip program in October. But in Knox County, guidance counselors and a call center receive the student texts.

A Knox County Schools spokesperson said there have been no texts about weapons or drugs.

But since the counselors receive the student texts, the spokesperson said there have been texts about bullying and boyfriend problems.