Statewide school tip line shows bullying, suicide, self-harm among top concerns, Attorney General’s Office says

A statewide tip line created as a way to prevent school shootings and violence has most often been used to report another crisis: student mental health issues, according to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office.

Of the more than 80,000 tips received through the Safe2Say Something program since the anonymous tip line launched for students in K-12 schools in 2019, 72.9% have focused on bullying, suicide, and self-harm, mental illness, or discrimination and harassment, the Attorney General’s Office said in a report Wednesday.

The proportion of tips classified as “life safety” issues — “where the immediate physical well-being and safety of a student may be at risk,” the report said — rose to 20.3% last school year, up from 15.7% in 2019-20. (However, overall tips were cut in half last school year — dropping from 23,745 to 10,495 — so the actual number of life safety issues decreased.)

Of the mental health-related tips reported last school year, bullying and cyberbullying incidents accounted for 32%; suicidal thoughts, 30%; cutting and self-harm, 20%; depression and anxiety, 12%; and anger issues, 2%. Analysts in a crisis center established by the Attorney General’s Office field the tips — submitted online or by phone — gathering missing information from tipsters, classifying the issues as “life safety” or “non-life safety” and delivering tips to the relevant schools and, if needed, law enforcement.

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“This is unique data, driven solely by students, and it is supported by extensive research that shows there is a mental health crisis affecting Pennsylvania children and teens,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a statement Wednesday. The report noted 2019 data from the Pennsylvania Youth Survey conducted by the state Commission on Crime and Delinquency that found 74% of students reported moderate or high symptoms of depression, while 14.4% reported self-harm.

Nearly 20% of 12th graders and 19% of 10th graders in the state Youth Survey reported considering suicide, according to the report.

The report also noted research nationally suggesting that “social isolation and difficulties accessing mental health services during the COVID-19 pandemic have had additional negative effects” on children’s mental health.

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Neighborhood schools are “uniquely positioned to address this crisis,” the report said, calling for mental health counselors in every Pennsylvania school. While the National Association of School Psychologists recommends a ratio of one school psychologist for every 500 students, it said, Pennsylvania has just one school psychologist for every 1,078 students.