Seattle’s Safe Schools Hotline doesn’t have a catchy number. It’s 206-252-0510. But it’s staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week for anyone to report threats or safety concerns to the district’s schools and the people in them.

“It’s very rare that we miss a call,” said Benjamin Coulter, Seattle Public Schools’ assistant manager of safety and security.

On the other hand, he said, it’s rare that the hotline or his office are the first to get a tip for a security emergency.

That’s because school principals are considered the incident-response commanders, and the principal or another staff member in the school is typically the first to know about a safety issue. They then decide whether to call in members of the district’s Safety and Security Department, law enforcement or other agencies or specialists to back them up. A weapon found on campus, or an imminent threat, typically prompts a 911 call.

If you want to report something, just remember that the hotline number, 206-252-0510, and the safety department’s direct line, 206-252-0707, are for calls only. Don’t try to text a tip. No one will see it. The numbers both ring the district’s Safety and Security Department which reportedly receives some 500 calls a day. People can dial either line for help.

Here, Coulter explains what happens when someone calls the SPS Safe Schools Hotline or the Safety and Security Department directly and why calling in a tip and talking with someone helps keep schools safe.

These responses have been edited for clarity and length.

How does this hotline work?

The Safe Schools Hotline has been around for decades and it rings to the Safety and Security office. When we see a call come through at Safe Schools, what that tells us is it’s probably someone not as familiar with the school systems, likely a parent or a family member, and that it’s likely somebody calling about a life safety issue with the youth, although it could be anything.

Just to clarify, what does “life safety issue” mean? Is that a threat to harm oneself or another person?

Suicidal ideation and self-harm is possibly more [commonly reported] than threats to do violent stuff.

It’s the Safety and Security Department. So folks who are taking calls in the day would be management and main office staff. Our team taking calls after hours is usually more focused on building safety. They don’t work with kids, however they do know key questions to ask and information to get. Depending on the nature of the call, there could be a message to follow up with the principal, or they might make an emergency call to the principal or myself late at night to say, hey we’ve got this thing. They may choose to call 911 or law enforcement systems depending on the nature of exactly what the call is.

How does a call get classified or prioritized?

Every call is unique, and every incident is unique. You’ve got [issues of] life safety, property damage, areas of concern that are maybe more long term. And to be honest, on the Safe Schools line, a lot of times we’re not taking these types of calls. We get complaints like, “I don’t think the principal locks the doors as much as they should” or “I don’t like the message that I got on a safety matter.” Sometimes it’s things that have nothing to do with safety whatsoever. People are just looking for someone to answer the phone. But to be clear, we absolutely do pass those messages on to the appropriate people to the fullest extent we can, even though it might not be something our department handles.

So is the Safe Schools Hotline a helpful tool? Does it just provide an extra layer of contact for people?

I think “extra layer” is a great way to put it. It’s a misconception to think that this is a primary point of contact. This is not primary. Primary is the school of trusted adults. But it’s great having different types of communication.

Are people reaching out to you by text or through social media?

I don’t know that our staffing levels would permit us to manage the phone lines and texting.

I think it’s good to keep in mind that when it comes to safety, whenever possible, you want to have a conversation. There’s a real challenge sometimes when people want to be anonymous. They give us so little information and there’s not a lot we can do with that kind of tip. We had one case where somebody wanted to be anonymous, but they said they did trust the school principal. So, we were able to get the principal after hours and he was able to talk to them and identify students who made certain remarks of concern and get it addressed that way. You kind of need those details to be able to fully look into something and really get to the root of what’s happening.

Are there any other ways your department is engaging with families?

We’re listening all the time. Parents call us all the time about what they’re happy about or not. Principals call us about things that they need consultation on. Our security specialists are out in schools and observing. I personally go out and visit schools one day a week and two days every other week. So I’m talking to kids, working with school security specialists, coaching and connecting with the administration. We’re not sitting in an office writing up plans and saying, hey, you’ll enjoy this safety plan. We’re engaging constantly through those 500 calls a day.

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