Anonymous student reporting app shows spike in suicide reports
Recent data from the student reporting system ‘Safe2Tell’ has demonstrated a marked increase in suicide threats between the 2018 and 2019 school years.
Safe2Tell is an app and online web browser that allows students to anonymously report threats to school officials, whether it be drug use, bullying, gun violence, self-harm, or sexual harassment — just to name a few.
Suicide is the most frequently reported category by far. In Colorado there were 2,709 reports of suicide risks from August 2017 to June 2018. During that same period the following year, 3,558 suicide risks were reported from August 2018 to June 2019 — a 31.34% increase.
The second most reported case — drugs — saw a 16.25% increase in that time period, meaning that suicide reports saw a percent increase of almost twice as much.
It’s important to note that total reporting across all categories has been increasing month by month. Reporting tends to decrease during the summer months when students are out of school. The reporting volume dipped this year like usual, from 2,877 tips in May to 674 in June. However, 674 total reports in June is an 83% spike in reporting from June 2018. Suicide threats also saw a dramatic 77% increase from 102 reports in 2018 to 181 reports in 2019.
Drugs meanwhile saw a 14.29% increase from 42 reports in June 2018 to 48 reports in June 2019. This indicates that suicide reports increased disproportionately to the increase in overall reporting across all categories in June.
Yet this is not necessarily a trend. For example, the month of May saw only a 16.25% increase in suicide reports from 2018 to 2019 but a 22.58% increase in drug reports. As total reporting continues to rise, it will likely become easier to isolate trends in Colorado’s student bodies.
El Paso County teens may benefit from this. A study by Colorado’s Attorney General in January showed that suicide rates in El Paso County have doubled from 2012-2014 to 2015-2017 in the 10 to 18-year-old age bracket.
To make a report, you can go to Safe2Tell.org, the Safe2Tell mobile app, or call 1-877-542-7233.
