Topline:
Officials in the Los Angeles Unified School District are rolling out a series of apps and app updates designed to address school safety and other parent concerns.
What are the apps?
- The Los Angeles Schools Anonymous Reporting app, or LASAR. It will help students, families, and community members alert school police about possible safety issues.
- An Emergency Alert app that gives school staff members the ability to alert school police of an active shooter.
- An updated Parent Portal will give parents information on their children’s school, including cafeteria options, bus routes, attendance, graduation progress and report cards.
- An updated Service Management Tool for IT issues.
How does the LASAR app work? The app is for non-emergency school related issues where users select one of eight categories, like a school shooting threat, drug use, or vandalism. They can upload a photo or video of an incident, and the app also tracks their location. Those reports go directly to the L.A. School Police Department (LASPD), where a commander decides what to do with them and whether to deploy any officers, mental health counselors, etc.
School safety is an issue: After an LAUSD student
died from a fentanyl overdose
in September, her
mother filed a lawsuit
alleging negligence on the part of the district. But the LAUSD board also heard from many students this week that the district
should be reducing police presence
, not encouraging it.
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