TOLEDO, Ohio — In the wake of recent gun violence and threats being made to schools nationwide, some local schools are now considering new ways of ensuring the safety of their students and staff.
Perrysburg school resource officer Greg Cole said the district is always having conversations within, to keep their students and staff feeling protected. But they're also thinking about implementing safety tactics that go beyond the walls.
"One of the things we're looking at is a mass notification system," Cole said. "What that would look like, what that would cost."
A safety measure where a text could be sent out to multiple people at once including staff, students, first responders and even parents in the case of an emergency.
"Upgrading communication is always key," Cole said. "Because as you know, when these things happen, everyone wants to know what's happening immediately, how best can we help out with that?"
However, just as much as the schools are responsible for keeping students safe, so are parents.
Emily Torok, executive director of Ohio School Safety Center, said sometimes, that starts with conversations at home.
"Identifying some of the concerns or concerning behavior for students is kind of one of the bigger things that we hope that parents, guardians, trusted adults, kind of start doing with their family members or just the youth that they have interactions with," Torok said.
The signs parents should look for in their students are withdrawal, being behind on schoolwork, mood swings and any self-harm attempts.
"Those are things that you need to check in with them on, see how things are going, check in with their teachers, their educators, their school counselors," Torok said.
Torok highlighted a statistic from a report from the U.S. Secret Services National Threat Assessment Center published in 2023, stating that most mass attacks in public spaces from 2016 to 2020 came from attackers who had already elicited concern in people around them.
It's a fact that Torok said is why it's so important for people to speak up in hopes of preventing any future violence.
"That's why bystander reporting is so important having those anonymous reporting solutions encouraging a culture of reporting," Torok said. "Making sure that students know who to report to, when to report, how to report those are also important for that reason."
Torok encourages people to call the Safer Ohio School Tip Line at 844-723-3764 (844-SAFEROH), which is available to all Ohio schools and lets people leave an anonymous tip or concerns that they may have about something or someone regarding school safety.
Torok also said that creating a culture of reporting and a positive school climate are key factors in keeping students and staff safe and sometimes is more efficient than technology such as cell phones.
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