Tip lines are a promising strategy for promoting school safety by creating a structured system where students, staff, parents, and community members can anonymously report safety concerns. To date, little is known about the characteristics of tips, how tips are reported, and what implications for practice can be developed from studying tip line data. We analyzed 228 tips collected over the course of 43 months by the SafeOregon tip line in which one or more persons were reported for signaling intentions or desires to commit an act of mass violence at a school (i.e., “leakage”). Tips were coded and analyzed to generate critical knowledge about the leakage, the person(s) being reported, how the tip was reported, and how the school responded. Given the urgency of timely reporting, we also investigated the odds of same day reporting by several tip and school characteristics. Results show that most tips described direct threats to shoot up the school by a known male student, usually made at school. Notable patterns can be observed by disaggregating tips according to time of day, day of the week, and month, although more research is needed to understand temporal fluctuations. When a specific date for violence was mentioned in the leakage, the reporter was significantly more likely to engage in same day reporting and the police were more likely to be called. Results highlight the importance of training students on how to use tip lines effectively, including describing leakage events clearly and with as much detail as possible. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
Leakage warning behaviors for mass school violence
An analysis of tips reported to a state school safety tip line
Hendrix, J. A., Planty, M., & Cutbush, S. L. (2022). Leakage warning behaviors for mass school violence: An analysis of tips reported to a state school safety tip line. Journal of Threat Assessment and Management, 9(1), 33-51. https://doi.org/10.1037/tam0000171
Abstract
Publications Info
To contact an RTI author, request a report, or for additional information about publications by our experts, send us your request.
Meet the Experts
View All ExpertsRecent Publications
Article
Protection of forest ecosystems in the eastern United States from elevated atmospheric deposition of sulfur and nitrogen
Article
The use of patient experience feedback in rehabilitation quality improvement and codesign activities
Article
SPTSSA variants alter sphingolipid synthesis and cause a complex hereditary spastic paraplegia
OCCASIONAL PAPER