Maine School Administrative District 75 Superintendent of Schools Heidi O’Leary told the school board at its meeting on Thursday, April 25, that the district will introduce the service, known as the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System, to students, faculty and staff with a series of informational meetings and training sessions.

Say Something is described as a confidential reporting system designed to help prevent violence and other harmful acts in schools. It was developed by Sandy Hook Promise, a Connecticut nonprofit founded and led by several family members whose loved ones were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012.

“Our intent is to honor all victims of gun violence by turning our tragedy into a moment of transformation,” the group’s website says. “By empowering youth to ‘know the signs’ and uniting all people who value the protection of children, we can take meaningful actions in schools, homes, and communities to prevent gun violence and stop the tragic loss of life.”

According to the nonprofit, the system enables students to anonymously report through an app, hotline or website “when they see a classmate who is at risk of harming themselves or others.” It is staffed by highly skilled crisis counselors who respond to tips “within seconds,” its website says.

“This is the only anonymous reporting system in the U.S. that provides training along with a mobile app, website, and hotline — exclusively for schools,” it says.

Other school districts in Maine already use the free service, O’Leary said, adding that MSAD 75 had been on a waitlist for two years to adopt it. She said it costs nothing to join and could help prevent future school shootings and other tragedies.

“I have spent a lot of years pledging to myself that I will continue to take action every single chance that I (get), in any way that I can, to help stop these needless acts of violence,” O’Leary told the board.

The district has seen an unusually high number of incidents this school year involving students committing or threatening violence, school officials have said. In September, a group of concerned parents urged the district to take additional measures to combat what they described as “escalating violence” involving students.

In August, a student at Mt. Ararat High School in Topsham was accused of drawing a gun on another student during a confrontation at the Topsham Fair.

Students have endured multiple bomb threats, one of which required students at Mt. Ararat Middle School in Topsham to be evacuated to the nearby high school.

On top of that, a Bowdoin man perpetrated a mass shooting on Oct. 25, killing 18 people in Lewiston and remaining at large for 48 hours before he was found dead by suicide. Area schools were closed for two days because of the incident.

A week later, MSAD 75 schools were placed on temporary lockdown on Nov. 2 in response to alleged threats of gun violence by a Caribou man who was later arrested.

“So far this year, we’ve had over 60 suspensions, 55 in-school suspensions and 12 threat assessments, which is really a lot,” O’Leary told the school board at a meeting in mid-December. A threat assessment is a proactive approach that focuses on early identification and prevention of threatening student behavior such as bullying.

The district hosted two safety forums in January to explain steps it is taking to keep children safe. School officials went over the methods they are using to train and drill students in how to respond to threats of violence, as well as the approach educators are taking to identify and defuse potential threats.

At the April 25 school board meeting, O’Leary said she was proud to announce that the entire district has received “run, hide, fight” training, which teaches students how to make snap decisions about the safest action to take in a threatening situation.

She added that 34 district employees have received training in the Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines, an evidence-based model developed at the University of Virginia.

According to Sandy Hook Promise, 12 children die each day from gun violence in America, and another 32 are shot and injured. Guns are the leading cause of death among American children and teens, it said, with one out of 10 gun deaths among those age 19 or younger.

Since the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, more than 338,000 students in the U.S. have experienced gun violence at school, the nonprofit said.

Board member Mary Hobson, of Topsham, lauded O’Leary and her administration for taking a proactive approach to keeping MSAD 75 students safe.

“Thank you for doing this — I really think it’s so important,” Hobson told O’Leary at the April 25 meeting. “And (thank you for) the foresight that you had to go ahead and get us on the waiting list two years ago.”

Have a comment or news tip? Email J. Craig Anderson at craig@harpswellanchor.org.