4 Tips to Combat Student Safety Risks
Expert strategies from a panel of K–12 safety professionals — addressing cyberbullying, mental health, parental involvement, and technology-driven prevention.
Introduction
From cyberbullying to child predators to school violence, students face a multitude of dangers putting their safety at risk. But with limited time and few resources available, school districts have found it challenging to address every potential risk to their students. To overcome this, schools have needed to focus their attention on combating only the risks most detrimental to their students’ safety.
With these challenges in mind, Lightspeed Systems hosted a panel discussion with reputable safety experts. The panel included a representative from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, a child cybercrime detective, and an educational technology strategist from Amazon Web Services (AWS) to deliberate upon the online safety risks students are facing today and what districts can do to address them. In this guide, you’ll learn about some of those dangers and what steps your district and school leaders can take to protect students.
What Are the Key Steps Schools Can Take to Keep Students Safe?
Before we dive more thoroughly into how you can combat risk, here’s a look at the top four strategies that we will cover. The following will inform your districts on areas of improvement to ensure the most effective student protection both online and off:
- Tip 1: Embrace the discussion surrounding student mental health and well-being
- Tip 2: Define and educate on best practices to increase online safety
- Tip 3: Get parents the resources they need to be informed and involved
- Tip 4: Leverage technology and your leaders as part of your prevention programs
These prevention strategies apply to every school and student, no matter your district’s location, size, or makeup of your student body.
01 | Embrace the Discussion Surrounding Student Mental Health and Well-Being
What Are the Key Steps Schools Can Take to Keep Students Safe?
Student mental health issues came to the forefront during the COVID-19 pandemic. As schools shut down across the world, students no longer had access to the mental health resources—guidance counseling and other behavioral services—they relied upon daily; some students lacked emotional support from guardians as well. Extended periods of remote learning coupled with the emotional and mental stress students faced when returning to in-person learning roused concerns about student isolation and depression—adding to the longstanding problems of social anxiety and cyberbullying students already face.
The pandemic has granted parents, educators, and district leaders an opportunity to remove some of the stigma with discussing student mental health. Mental health has been a concern for students far before the pandemic.
#2
Suicide has been the second leading cause of death for children under 18 for the last decade.
The issue isn’t new, but now districts have the resources and funding to support prevention and intervention strategies. We need to ensure students feel safe and put measures in place to help families understand and address mental health issues—open and honestly—this is a critical component of developing a prevention intervention strategy.
Building Cross-Functional Safety Teams
To develop strong intervention and prevention programs, districts must understand that it’s not a one-size-fits-all. The responsibility of addressing the issues can’t rely on one person. Several districts are now forming teams that focus on student safety and mental well-being. These cross-functional teams typically include students services, SROs or security directors, and superintendents or assistant superintendents. Also, several districts have evaluated bringing on new roles or departments to support the mental health, well-being, and physical safety to better protect students.
Speaking up in person about mental health—either about personal feelings or concerns about a friend or classmate—can be difficult. That’s why building accessible, stigma-free channels within districts is so essential to effective prevention.
02 | Define and Educate on Best Practices to Increase Online Safety
Define and Educate on Best Practices to Increase Online Safety
With a surge of districts moving to a 1:1 learning environment rapidly in response to the pandemic, few districts had a plan in place to ensure students understood how to use their devices safely. While media and technology have great promise for learning, students need support and education to learn how to make appropriate judgments when navigating the digital world. Parents and educators alike need to understand best practices on how to teach kids good online habits and skills whether at school or at home. More importantly, students need education and information on the online risks they may not even be aware of—sexploitation and cyberbullying.
The Expert Perspective: Teaching Students to Speak Up
Rich Wistocki, former detective, child cybercrimes expert, and current K–12 student safety consultant urges the importance of teaching students how to protect themselves online, and educating parents on their responsibilities for internet safety laws and child technology utilization.
Last year, Rich Wistocki spoke with the student bodies of 25 schools across the country. He shared: “I tell students, I’m a cybercrime detective. Don’t sit in silence, I can help. If you’re being harassed or concerned about something that’s happening to you online, we can find out who they are and where they are.”
Out of 25 schools, 17 students came forward telling Rich Wistocki they were being extorted—right after his presentation.
Education and open dialogue save lives.
Understanding the Risks
Students often join online chats to connect with people with common interests and to make new friends. It could be for reasons as simple as feeling lonely or isolated. However, not knowing or understanding the inherent risks involved can prohibit them from making thoughtful decisions and putting themselves in harm’s way. It’s critical to educate students about online abusers and extortioners with the knowledge that even anonymous online abusers can be identified and prosecuted.
Building a Culture of Digital Citizenship
As our digital world evolves, a focus on promoting and educating students and parents on Digital Citizenship is more important than ever. These 21st-century skills are essential for children to communicate, collaborate, think critically, and create effectively with technology. As schools integrate technology, creating a culture of digital citizenship among students, faculty, and parents is essential for student learning and safety.
03 | Get Parents the Resources They Need to Be Informed & Involved
Get Parents the Resources They Need to Be Informed & Involved
Parents face a host of obstacles while trying to keep their kids safe online. Some obstacles include: rapidly changing technology (including new social and gaming networks), kids using computers and phones in their rooms with their doors closed or late at night, and/or broaching mental health, online safety, and behavioral topics with their kids, as many adults may not have been raised having these types of conversations. That’s why education is key.
How Lightspeed Systems® Arms Parents with Information
How can parents actively engage and stay informed, whether it be through community, educational resources, or technology? Amy Bennett from Lightspeed Systems® shared:
Key insight: Often parents aren’t aware of the services or protection provided by districts. It’s important to come up with training and educational resources for parents. If parents don’t know where to look, or how to help, they may be missing an opportunity to be part of the infostructure that can build better, stronger communities.
04 | Leverage Technology and Your Leaders as Part of Your Prevention Programs
Leverage Technology and Your Leaders as Part of Your Prevention Programs
Protecting students both on- and off-line requires constant recalibration and awareness. Now that most students have access to a school issued device, the utilization of tech—whether at school or at home—has likely increased for most students. So, how do you keep them safe online? You meet them where they’re at. If that’s online, what does that mean for district leaders from a technology perspective? It’s simple. It means demanding better real-time data, interoperability, security, and privacy.
District technology must evolve, just as teaching students has evolved. Technology is a tool districts leverage daily. Reliable technology is important for both disaster prevention and recovery standpoints. Notifications need to be received just as soon as they are sent so that safety personnel can make decisions faster.
Lightspeed Systems®: Holistic Online Student Safety
Over the last 20 years, Lightspeed Systems® has been protecting students online. But like any edtech company, Lightspeed Systems® has evolved over time, and our mission is holistic online student safety. Early-warning threat detection programs like Lightspeed Alert™ combine AI with real-time human monitoring to scan online documents, emails, and browsers for signs of violence, suicidal ideation, self-harm, and cyberbullying.
Recognition and content monitoring programs can let administrators know when there’s suspicious or worrisome activity being discussed. The instant a threat is detected, designated district personnel and a safety specialist are simultaneously alerted by the system, which allows for quick and effective prevention and intervention that can save student lives.
Next Steps
Next Steps for Protecting Students Online & Offline
We hope this guide provides a good starting point for assessing student safety risks and management protocols. The key takeaways from this panel discussion included:
- Embrace the discussion surrounding student mental health and well-being
- Define and educate on best practices to increase online safety
- Get parents the resources they need to be informed and involved
- Leverage technology and your leaders as part of your prevention programs
To learn more about how to ensure student safety in an evolving digital landscape, watch the on-demand webinar where this panel took a deeper dive into each of these topics — including additional tips and resources along with the complete, in-depth conversation with our panel of student safety experts.
Identify Students in Crisis Before a Tragedy Occurs
Lightspeed Alert™ is a proactive school safety solution that monitors online activity, flags concerning behaviors, and enables intervention before it's too late.
Comprehensive Coverage
Device-level and integration scanning gives districts visibility into warning signs across browsers, apps, Microsoft 365, and Google — including signals only on-device agents can see.
24/7/365 Human Review
Lightspeed Safety Specialists (with backgrounds in education, law enforcement, and threat assessment) monitor alerts around the clock, 365 days a year, so no urgent alert goes unreviewed.
Full Context. Fast Decisions.
Incident management delivers screenshots, browser history, and case notes right alongside every alert — so staff can understand the full picture and act quickly.
