Anonymous texting tip line launches at OPRF

Oak Park and River Forest High School is giving parents and their kids a new way to alert the school about possible infractions on-campus, and possibly off-campus, by students.

The school’s new text-messaging tip line went live at the start of the school year. OPRF Principal Nate Rouse says it’s completely anonymous, and that staff and parents can also use the six-digit text number (274637), which is printed on the backs of students’ and staff IDs. The text tip line is up 24-7, seven days a week, and goes to designated safety and security staff in the building, Rouse said. 

Its main purpose is to protect and keep students safe and not serve as a “gotcha” tool against students, Rouse stressed.  

The service is offered by TipSoft, which is based in Utah and specializes in online and texting software for schools and law enforcement. A subsidiary of CrimesReports, also based in Utah, TipSoft’s tip texting service is used by 600 schools, universities and law enforcement agencies in the United States and Canada, according to its website (www.tipsoftonline.com). 

The cost for the service to OPRF is minimal—around $1,000— said Randy Braverman, OPRF’s director of security. Locally, Evanston Township High School also uses the service, Braverman noted. 

Evanston has had its text tip line since 2009 says Terrence Doby, the school’s assistant director of safety. The school’s toll-free telephone tip line has existed for a decade-and-a-half, Doby added. While the toll-free number may get one tip a year, the text service yields about a dozen, Doby said.  

So far, OPRF’s tip line has received about 30 texts, some mostly from students as a kind of joke to see if it actually works, Rouse said. Most of the text tips received at Evanston are legitimate, Doby said, adding that they help the school intervene in situations they may not have known about without the service. But there are, he added, an occasional hoax or bogus tip that’s received.

“Of the very few illegitimate tips we do receive, we believe that many of them may be an attempt to test the anonymity of the service. With this technology, we feel that we are better able to meet the groups we serve where they are: the cyber sphere,” Doby said.

This school year at OPRF, thus far, has not seen a lot of disciplinary problems, said Rouse, adding that reaction to the text tip line, especially from parents, has been overall positive.

“This is just another measure to try and shore up and tighten up, and show our community and our school that we care and are trying to do things that, hopefully, aren’t viewed as punitive but that protects the kids,” Rouse said.

It’s available throughout the school year and during the summer. If there’s a tip about an incident off-campus involving students, the school could issue consequences or turn the matter over to Oak Park police depending on the type of infraction, Rouse and Braverman said. 

The high school is able to issue a consequence for infractions that happens off-campus that filters back into the building, Rouse noted, such as bullying that starts online but continues on campus.

“Now that we have it live, and we’re open during the summer — we’ve got summer school and other things going on — we want to make sure that we have something that’s available,” Rouse said.

Oak Park Police Chief Rick Tanksley, in an interview Monday, said he likes the idea of OPRF having an anonymous tip line. Many times, people, and students in particular, may be hesitant to report wrongdoings while wanting to maintain their anonymity, Tanksley said. But with OPRF’s new anonymous service, more tips than are otherwise not reported should come in, Tanksley said. 

OPRF’s tip line also allows photos and videos to be texted, which Tanksley said is also helpful to the police.

The department, he adds, has a “very good” working relationship with OPRF; Tanksley said he has no doubts that OPRF would forward those tips involving students off-campus.

Prior to launching OPRF’s tip line, teachers, staff or administrators would receive just emails or calls. But having one line of communication now, Rouse and Braverman said, is much more efficient. 

The school talked last year about launching a traditional anonymous tip phone line. As students were brought into those conversations, it was they who suggested using text messaging. 

“The students are far more tech savvy than we ever were,” Braverman said, with Rouse adding, “We talked with our students and they said, “it should be a text.” We weren’t even thinking along those lines before the students suggested it, and it was a great idea.”

Rouse added that the school wanted to come up with a way for students in particular to feel comfortable and confident with contacting the school. That, he noted, is continuing goal in tackling the whole “No Snitching” philosophy among many of today’s youth. 

“You don’t want to be ostracized or have your peers look at you differently because you told. But we’ve, actually, seen a little bit of the opposite with our students. If someone’s doing something that they shouldn’t be doing, our kids will look at them like, ‘what are you doing?’ This year, especially, our students have been wonderful.”