Last school year, Gaggle flagged more than 360,000 student safety incidents requiring district attention to help ensure student safety and well-being. Approximately one in every four student safety incidents were flagged for violence during the 2020–21 school year, with more than 3,300 incidents warranting an immediate call to the district to prevent a potential incident. For our K-12 district partners across the country, Gaggle serves as an early warning system to help prevent potentially harmful acts—before it’s too late.
“It’s been a crucial piece of being able to know who those students are at an earlier stage before they’ve gotten into some of that planning and negative thinking that might lead them down that pathway of targeted violence. Gaggle has been an important part of that solution for our school safety in our district.”
Denise Moody, Director of Student Services, Rochester Public Schools (MN)
When monitoring for possible violence, Gaggle looks for signs that students might be planning an attack or threatening someone with physical harm. Signs of possible violence include mentions of weapons, bomb threats, or other explicit threats. During the 2020–21 school year, Gaggle flagged more than 92,000 incidents referencing violence in students’ school-issued accounts.
Incidents in this category have increased by 104% compared to the 2019–20 school year, rising from 88 incidents up to 179 incidents per 10,000 students. Incidents at the elementary level have spiked by a staggering 346%, increasing from 21 incidents to 94 incidents per 10,000 students. This surge in violent content is certainly cause for concern—especially during a time of uncertainty and unrest across the country.
“School leadership, administrators, educators, and those tasked with school safety and security functions must engage in genuine violence prevention efforts by developing systems to detect concerning behaviors and implementing management strategies to support students struggling to cope with life stressors,” shared Bruno Dias, Director of Safety and Security at Mansfield Independent School District in Texas. “Gaggle’s detection capability supports prevention programs, including behavioral threat assessment and management, which—based on empirical evidence—can help move children from a pathway of violence and distress to a pathway of hope and success. It is time to stop responding to violence and start preventing violence.”
Access our Through the Gaggle Lens: The State of Student Safety report to learn more about what Gaggle’s data revealed during the 2020–21 school year.
*Increases reflect incident rates per 10,000 students compared to the 2019–20 school year, accounting for growth in Gaggle’s business.