Students in Wilkinsburg have another lifeline to report campus threats.

District officials are working with organizers of the national nonprofit that runs 1-866-SPEAK-UP, a hot line for students to report weapons threats anonymously.

Incidents threatening safety in Wilkinsburg schools jumped from 14 during the 2004-05 school year to 2,009 during the 2008-09 school year, according to the most recent data from Pennsylvania’s Safe Schools program.

Wilkinsburg officials acknowledged the spike, but said that includes incidents of tardiness, complaints about clothing and violations of student conduct, rather than public safety threats.

“They were writing kids up for wearing hats or for sleeping in class. Everything got written up,” said Velma Parker, the district’s attendance officer, who tracks incidents. “Yes, that’s inappropriate behavior, but are those really student-conduct violations that should go to the state?”

During 2008-09, Wilkinsburg schools enrolled 1,453 students and reported 39 arrests. The year before, the district reported 1,302 incidents and no arrests, according to Safe Schools.

Parker did not dispute the rise in arrests in 2008-09, but said many were for violations that didn’t take place on school grounds.

By contrast, the East Allegheny School District with 1,900 students reported 116 incidents in 2008-09. In nearby Woodland Hills and Penn Hills school districts, each of which had nearly three times as many students as Wilkinsburg that year, the number of incidents was fewer: 579 in Woodland Hills that year, and 72 in Penn Hills.

The SPEAK-UP program is a campaign by PAX, a Washington nonprofit that works to end to gun violence against children and families.

“Anything a school district can do to make authorities aware of potential threats to safety can only help,” Wilkinsburg police Chief Ophelia Coleman said.

Twenty-one of the 2008-09 incidents in Wilkinsburg involved weapons, the report said. In April, teachers in Turner Elementary School found an 8-year-old boy with 60 single-dose “stamp bags” with heroin residue in his pockets.

Parker said teachers and staff are being trained this year to be more observant and to use discretion in deciding the severity of an incident before reporting it. In previous years, all student conduct infractions, even minor ones, were recorded as public safety incidents and sent to the state.

The tip line got about 35,000 calls nationwide in eight years. PAX can provide school districts with anti-violence literature, websites, software and public service announcements for television, said Marjorie Spitz, chief marketing officer. Spitz said Wilkinsburg students can call the number, but details on the district’s level of involvement in the program are being worked out.

“By utilizing SPEAK-UP, the district is taking another proactive stance to protect the continued safety of students,” said Lindsey Neyland, a district spokeswoman.

Coleman said the SPEAK-UP program “empowers children.”

“There’s a difference between being a snitch and being able to tell what’s going on,” she said. “This teaches them to be civic-minded.”

Copyright ©2026— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)