I'm not sure, but I'm going to ask my students in advisory on Thursday and report back to you!

It depends. If it's just a PR stunt designed to make it appear that something is being done, it will quickly be found out and few will bother to use it. If there are consistent, obvious results, it will be used.

My question would be what is the reaction to a call going to be? Cops showing up at the school? Suspensions being handed out? The Mayor eating in the cafeteria?

The solution to violence isn't an easy fix - heck, if it were we would already have done it. Just as we cannot (and have not) arrested our way out of the crack crises, we cannot and have not and will not suspend and punish our way out of the culture of violence that comes in to the school buildings (as well as other places, but heck, this is the "Ed" blog, not the "let's fix everything that's wrong with society" blog). And changing or creating culture isn't easy. How do we get to the place where kids simply don't think of hitting someone as an option? How do we change the way that we all (kids and adults) speak to each other - the words and tones that we use - so that a new culture can sprout and take root? It ain't through a hot line that's for sure.

Good luck to all educators, parents and city (and county since I hear that place is becoming a hot mess too) residents as we try and turn the tide. Push harder.

IO

I wonder if having a more accessible principal wouldn't be a more direct solution. If there was way that any teacher, parent or student could communicate (anonymously or not) about perceived violence directly to the principal, wouldn't action be quicker? Of course, this means you have to have a decent principal, but that is a recurring theme of the reorganization. Maybe this 311 system could be a fallback if you think the principal is part of the problem.

Of course IO brings up the bigger point - how do we eliminate the violence? After struggling with bullying, we opted to switch schools because sometimes it seems the only solution is to remove yourself from the situation. I'm not proud that we bailed out, but honestly I couldn't see the school having the will to force this group of kids to stop doing something that their parents and peers were totally OK with.

This will sound counter intuitive to many in the education community, but I hope you will pull back a minute and give this some serious consideration.

A hot line won't make schools safer, nor will adding School Safety Officers, metal detectors, cameras and electronic doors. In effect, these things make schools into prisons.

What will make schools safer, is when schools implement training that teaches students and faculty to react aggressively against these cowards.

Current school policies of 'shelter in place' and 'lock down' do not address the realities, or the complexities of these situations. Keeping students 'locked down' in a building with killers takes away their numerical advantage, and sets up the opportunity for large numbers of capable students to be put into harms way because the schools are afraid 'some one might get hurt!'.

Friends, there's a killer loose.

Hot lines don't stop bullets from killers who have made up their mind to complete their mission in your child's school. History shows killers are not deterred by armed police, cameras, electronic doors, you name it.

The only thing that can 'stop' killers is when they are overwhelmed. Schools always have numerical advantage on their side, but we never teach our kids to use it. Schools have to start teaching students and teachers they are not incapable if unarmed.

There is a book out there for those interested in learning more:

Stay Alive in School Shooting: Common Sense that's not Common Knowledge.