{"id":10689,"date":"2020-10-22T19:25:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T02:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=10689"},"modified":"2020-10-22T19:25:00","modified_gmt":"2020-10-23T02:25:00","slug":"sprigeo-says-yes-to-school-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=10689","title":{"rendered":"Sprigeo Says Yes to School Safety"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Joe<\/a>

Joe Bruzzese of Sprigeo, photo by Daniel Dreifuss for Santa Barbara Independent.<\/p><\/div>\n

When\u00a0Joe Bruzzese<\/a> founded Sprigeo<\/a> in 2010, he wanted\u00a0to help schools prevent bullying and provide a safe,\u00a0anonymous method for students to report things\u00a0that made them feel unsafe. The service has since evolved\u00a0into a full-fledged school safety tip line reporting system, with\u00a0a 24\/7 call center accessible by phone, email, text, an app, or\u00a0the website.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything goes through the call center,\u201d explained Bruzzese.\u00a0\u201cThey triage those tips based on pre-set criteria to\u00a0determine how serious of a threat the tip is. Some are very\u00a0serious\u2014\u2018There\u2019s a planned school attack,\u2019 or \u2018I\u2019m planning to\u00a0take my own life and I\u2019m calling or reporting to get help\u2019\u2014to\u00a0something that\u2019s far less serious, like, \u2018I don\u2019t like what they\u2019re\u00a0serving in the school cafeteria.\u2019 We get the gamut of reportable\u00a0tips, not all of which qualify obviously as a school safety threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

A virtual company from the get-go, Sprigeo now serves more\u00a0than 4,000 schools across 28 states as well as administering the\u00a0statewide tip lines for Oregon and Idaho. They recently signed\u00a0on to provide the tip line for the state of Illinois, their largest\u00a0customer so far.<\/p>\n

That provides a lot of data to digest. One trend that Bruzzese\u00a0sees is an uptick in middle-school students \u201creally\u00a0struggling with cutting and depression and other forms of\u00a0self-harm.\u201d Vaping is also on the rise, not just in high school\u00a0but in middle school. Prior to the pandemic, Sprigeo was\u00a0working on a series of videos featuring high schoolers telling\u00a0middle schoolers how \u201cuncool\u201d and unhealthy vaping really is.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, that project is on hold at the moment, but\u00a0one thing the company has been able to move forward on is\u00a0an online educational conference that will launch on September\u00a014.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe culture around meetings and professional development\u00a0really has changed, and people are now very comfortable with\u00a0sitting in front of a screen and attending a Zoom meeting or a\u00a0training session,\u201d explained Bruzzese. \u201cDistricts still have the\u00a0same professional development requirements by law, [so this is]\u00a0helping them in a way that makes sense, which has been great.\u00a0Everyone is really looking for opportunities for quality online\u00a0training.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0sprigeo.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Tech<\/a>

Tech Talk Special Issue for Santa Barbara Independent, published October 1, 2020.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tech Talk Special Issue<\/a> for the Santa Barbara Independent<\/em><\/a>, originally published on October 1, 2020.<\/p>\n

To read the issue as it appeared in print, please click here, Tech Talk 768_10_01_20<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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