Utah students can download the SafeUT app to their phones. And just like any other app used by today’s youth, SafeUT’s icon sits on their phones screen until they reach out and tap it.
Tapping on the SafeUT app puts students in touch by voice or chat with a qualified counselor 24/7, during times of depression or suicidal thoughts.
The app can also be used to anonymously report a variety of school concerns including things like bullying, harassment, fighting and rumors of school violence.
Early in March 2018, a new reporting category was added to SafeUT.
“I added kindness as a reporting category on March 7,” said Sen. Daniel Thatcher, West Valley City, who sponsored the legislation in 2015 that created the SafeUT app. “I thought it would be good to have kindness as a reportable category. We need to go out of our way to make schools kinder and an easier place for students.”
As a result of the addition of kindness as a reportable category in SafeUT, the Tooele County School District received an anonymous tip about a high school senior who was committing acts of kindness.
Marianne Oborn, social services and counseling director for the school district, is responsible for working with school and district administrators to follow through on SafeUT tips.
Every time SafeUT receives a tip about a Tooele County School District School, Oborn receives a notice through an app on her phone.
Oborn did not know that kindness had been added to SafeUT when she opened up her phone to check a tip.
“I saw it said ‘kindness’ and I thought ‘I didn’t know that was a category,” she said
Oborn said she went on to read the tip: “Nikole Titara is really nice and talks to everyone, and I think she needs help knowing how great of a person she is.”
Titara is a senior at Grantsville High School.
Thatcher held a meeting at Grantsville High School on Friday to formally announce the addition of kindness as a reportable category on the SafeUT app. He also recognized Titara and Lizzie Rawlings, an eighth-grade student body officer at Clarke Johnsen Junior High School, for their promotion of kindness in their schools.
Titara said she didn’t know talking to people was anything special.
“It’s just something I have always done,” she said. “If I see somebody just sitting there, I’ll walk up to them and start talking with them.”
A member of Grantsville High School’s Hope Squad, Titara has used her training and the SafeUT app to get help for friends.
“I think the whole school should have the training on what to look for,” she said. “That way we could all look out for each other.”
Titara said she was surprised when she was told somebody had reported her for kindness.
“Reporting kindness is good,” she said. “Maybe we will see more kindness.”
Rawlings was recognized for her effort in organizing a student walk out for kindness on March 14.
“We didn’t want it to be political or about guns or anything like that,” Rawlings said. “We wanted to encourage students to do what they can do to make positive changes in the school environment. Kindness can change everything.”
During the walkout, Rawlings challenged students to do 17 acts of kindness, one for each victim of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.
Thatcher hopes reporting and recognizing kindness will increase kindness, he said.
“We’ve had 85 acts of kindness reported since we added kindness to SafeUT,” Thatcher said. “And we haven’t told anybody we’ve added it. Now that the word is out, we will see even more kindness.”