Points clés à retenir
- Early identification is essential. The majority of school violence and self-harm is preceded by clear warning signs, often online or disclosed to peers.
- Student reporting must be safe and accessible. Anonymous reporting and digital monitoring surface issues that adults may miss.
- Intervention is a 24/7 responsibility. Significant risks occur after hours and during seasonal spikes, requiring continuous monitoring and timely escalation.
- Every school community is affected. Proactive, data-driven safety strategies benefit all students, regardless of background.
During yesterday’s 2025 State of Student Safety, Part 1 webinar, product managers Gregory Artzt and Jennifer Duer shared not only a data-driven overview of current challenges in K-12 safety, but also real-world stories and actionable strategies for early intervention—reflecting the urgency and complexity of keeping students safe in today’s educational environment.
➡ Si vous le souhaitez, vous pouvez watch the webinar on-demand now.
As Gregory aptly stated, “Prevention is not accidental. It’s planned.” The conversation must continue—every student deserves to feel safe, supported, and heard.
The Current Landscape: Persistent and Evolving Threats
Jennifer Duer opened with a clear-eyed assessment: “Violence prevention is a leading concern. This year alone, the U.S. has seen 32 school shootings. This is a tragic indicator of the urgent need for stronger early intervention.” She emphasized that these incidents are rarely isolated, highlighting research that nearly every recent K-12 school shooter has also exhibited suicidal behavior, and that approximately 75% of school shootings are linked to bullying or harassment.
“Violence, suicidality, and bullying often coexist and can accelerate escalation on the pathway to violence,” Jennifer explained. “Many of the violent acts in schools are also acts of desperation, often predicated by mental health struggles or grievances that occurred long before the violence took place. This is why early intervention and action is so critical to prevention.”
These concerns are not hypothetical. Jennifer shared national data showing that 1 in 10 students have missed school recently due to safety concerns, and 4 in 10 reported signs of emotional distress over the past year. “These aren’t rare occurrences. They’re impacting everyone in the school community, whether directly or indirectly.”
Amplifying Student Voices: The Power of Anonymous Reporting
Gregory Artzt highlighted the importance of empowering students to speak up. “Nearly 80% of students that submitted an anonymous report stated they wouldn’t have without a tool in place. That’s pretty powerful,” he noted. The majority of reports come from peers—students who witness concerning behavior or disclosures and need a safe, anonymous way to share their concerns.
“Student voices are a key part of your safety strategy. Adults often don’t see or hear what students are saying and hearing,” Gregory observed, underscoring the value of anonymous reporting tools in surfacing early warning signs.
Jennifer added, “Over 70% of school shootings show the first signs online with posts, messages, or searches. With 95% of teens online—most of them almost constantly—digital spaces are really where risk and cry-for-help signals are likely to show up.”
Technology as an Enabler: From Data Overload to Actionable Intelligence
Lightspeed’s approach leverages both artificial intelligence and human review to manage the immense volume of digital interactions generated by students. Jennifer detailed the workflow: “Lightspeed Alert currently helps schools protect over 5 million students. Every day, these students are engaging with billions of digital interactions… millions of these raise red flags for potential risk.” The AI system narrows 454 million potential signals each year down to 1.7 million actionable alerts, with human reviewers then prioritizing less than 0.02% of the original signals for urgent intervention.
“Every four minutes, a student was identified as facing a potentially serious threat to their own safety or the safety of others,” Jennifer reported. “Without this process, schools would be buried in data, or worse, critical signals could go unseen.”
On the anonymous reporting side, Gregory noted that about 9% of reports are classified as imminent threats—often based on tips from peers about self-harm or threats of violence. “We don’t get many false reports. The system is designed to ensure that what comes in is serious and actionable.”
Case Studies: The Critical Importance of Early Detection
Both presenters shared stories that illustrated the life-saving impact of early intervention. Gregory recounted an incident where a student’s absence raised concerns, leading to a timely check-in and prevention of a suicide attempt. “If either of these solutions were in place—digitally, it could have been automated; or if that friend felt like they had a safe way to anonymously submit that tip—the school could have been aware and dealt with that student that day,” he reflected.
Jennifer described a situation where monitoring technology detected a student’s search for “how to hide a knife.” School staff intervened and discovered the student was carrying a weapon out of fear from bullying. “It really points to behaviors that could have been reported, could have been stopped earlier. We were able to identify and intervene before it became a bigger situation.”
Trends and Timing: Where and When Risks Emerge
Over 70% of the most serious alerts originate from device-level monitoring, which captures activity on platforms beyond standard productivity tools—including YouTube, Instagram, and AI chat sites. “With the average teenager spending nine hours a day on their screens, these are becoming the digital hallways where we see early signs of distress, violence, or self-harm show up first,” Jennifer explained.
Seasonal and time-of-day patterns are also critical. Jennifer noted, “About 40% of high-risk activity happens outside school hours, with clear spikes in the evenings.” This aligns with broader mental health data showing increased risk during times when students are most isolated and least supervised.
Universal Relevance: No Community Is Immune
Gregory concluded with a reminder: “It’s not always the kids you’d expect. The signs are usually there, if you’re listening and you open up these kinds of pathways to detect early.”
If you missed the webinar, Lightspeed’s next event will feature school administrators sharing their experiences and best practices. Stay engaged, and let’s work together to build safer schools for all.
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