While school resource officers (SRO) have been available to help students in Monroe County for several years, the school system has installed a program that will allow anonymous tips, easing any fear of reprisals students might have.
SRO David Kirkland said he got the idea of using anonymous texts after he attended an SRO convention.

"The students are the ones who know what's going on in the schools," he said. "We need to use that resource as best we can, and other school systems had experienced success with anonymous text lines."
Kirkland said he contacted Knox County, who has had success with the idea, but was warned that it's an expensive thing to do.

"We all know times are tough and money's tight," Kirkland said, "so I talked to Monroe County Finance Director Brian Tallent and he told me U.S. Cellular does have community minded programs that help with this type of thing."
Kirkland contacted the phone company and soon had not only free phones for all the SROs, but also free texting service.

"And this is something U.S. Cellular is doing without any publicity," Kirkland said. "There won't be any banners hung at schools or any kind of advertising that they're doing this."
The program has been running for a few days and Kirkland said he got his first text less than an hour after he put up signs at Sequoyah High School announcing the program was available.
"Pretty much every kid above a certain age has a cell phone now," Kirkland said. "If they don't have one, it means they're either in the process of getting one or they've had it taken away as punishment for something they did.

"You walk down the hall of any school," he added, "and all you see is either kids talking non-stop on phones or wearing out their thumbs by texting. If we can tap into that we can solve a lot of problems."

Kirkland admitted there will be students trying to "joke around" with the number, but any false reports made to the number will be prosecuted.
"I received a text that basically asked 'who's this,'" Kirkland said. "I texted back that it was Officer Kirkland and didn't hear from them again. Most students don't want to get into trouble."
If a message is received that leads to the discovery of something illegal being done, the texting student won't be called on in any future court dates.

"The SRO will take the complaint to the principal, and it will be investigated from there," Kirkland said. "The student who gave us the information will remain anonymous."
Director of Schools Mike Lowry said the text line is a great safety device for the school system. "If something like this is out there in society," he said, "we need to use it in a positive way. This is a great idea for our schools and we're appreciative of all the work the officers do."

Monroe County has six SROs: Captain David Kirkland (SQHS), Sgt. Kevin Peak (Madisonville Middle School), Deputy Allen Morris (TPHS), Deputy Laura Perian (SHS), Officer Harvey Presley (TPJHS) and George (Mack) Williams (VMS).
Vonore Police Chief Mike Myers said Melinda Fowler will replace Williams when she finishes her training and Williams moves into investigations.

Sweetwater City School system plans to set up a similar text line in its schools.
Kirkland said each officer will have a dedicated line and the phones are not to be used for personal calls.
"And the students can call us if they don't want to text," he said. "They can call or text us after school if they need to. We probably won't be able to respond, but we can call dispatch and have an officer to their location in just a few minutes."

michael.thomason@advocateanddemocrat.com | 442-4575