Districts from Coast to Coast Choose Gaggle to Protect Students and Save Lives

13 new districts in six states partner with Gaggle to implement 24/7 early-warning system, providing proactive, real-time monitoring and notifications of student safety issues and threats

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (Sept. 16, 2019) – School districts partnering with Gaggle helped save the lives of 722 students who were actively planning or attempting suicide during the 2018-19 school year. To proactively protect students and ensure their safety and well-being in digital spaces, 13 districts in six different states stretching across the country have chosen to team up with Gaggle, the leader in helping K-12 districts manage student safety on school-provided technology. 

Since 1999, Gaggle has helped districts across the country protect students, avoid tragedies, and save lives by monitoring and responding to safety issues and threats. The Gaggle safety solution uses a robust combination of both artificial intelligence and trained safety experts to provide real-time analysis and review of students’ use of online collaboration platforms, such as Google’s G Suite for Education, Microsoft Office 365, and Canvas. 

Some of the newest districts partnering with Gaggle to keep their students safe are:

• Anaheim Elementary School District, California
• Pasadena Unified School District, California
• Bunker Hill Community School District #8, Illinois
• Community High School District #117, Illinois
• Rochester Public School District, Minnesota
• Rockwall Independent School District (ISD), Texas
• Dickinson ISD, Texas
• Irving ISD, Texas
• Santa Fe ISD, Texas 
• Roanoke County Public Schools, Virginia
• Shenandoah County Public Schools, Virginia
• Bellevue School District, Washington
• Federal Way School District, Washington

“In light of the tragic events that happened here at Santa Fe High School on May 18, 2018, restoring a sense of safety and security has become top priority in our district” said Jodi Montemayor, Gaggle Administrator from Santa Fe (TX) Independent School District.  “With violence, bullying and teen depression becoming a nationwide epidemic, the need is high to have all measures of protection in place to prevent future school attacks. With Gaggle as our partner, we have created a shared commitment and dedicated resources to provide a safe and secure learning environment for all of our students, staff, and community.”

Gaggle proactively assists districts 24/7/365 in the prevention of harmful situations. Over the past 20 years, Gaggle has scanned more than 13 billion pieces of student content, flagging over 151 million items for review by Gaggle looking for signs of self-harm, depression, thoughts of suicide, substance abuse, cyberbullying, and credible threats of violence against others. 

In addition, Gaggle adheres to the requirements of the National Center of Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) to protect school districts from the risks and liability involved in handling pornographic images that may be inadvertently uploaded to school servers when students sync their cell phone to their school accounts. 

"We are pleased to join the Gaggle team given our intense focus on the health, safety, and well-being of our students and community,” said Dr. Mark Johnston, superintendent, Shenandoah County Public Schools, Virginia. “We see Gaggle as helping us to better address and maintain this focus for electronic communications."

For more information, visit www.gaggle.net.

About Gaggle | www.gaggle.net

Since 1999, Gaggle has been the leader in helping K-12 districts manage student safety on school-provided technology. Using a robust combination of both artificial intelligence and trained safety experts, the safety solution proactively assists districts 24/7/365 in the prevention of student suicide, bullying, inappropriate behaviors, school violence, and other harmful situations. Most importantly, Gaggle continues to help hundreds of districts avoid tragedies and save lives, while also protecting their liability. In the 2018-19 academic year, Gaggle has helped districts save the lives of more than 700 students who were planning or actually attempting suicide. For more information, visit www.gaggle.net and follow Gaggle on Twitter at @Gaggle_K12.