The Randolph County Board of Education has a new way for students to communicate with school system leaders without being "seen as a snitch."
"We want a platform to allow people to report stuff to us that we may need to know about that's going on in the school," said Allen Robertson, with Randolph County Schools. "This, I believe, is a force multiplier. It allows the principal to have ears in more places than we already do."
The Anonymous Alert system will go live in late October or early November.
Robertson said students, parents and people in the community will be able to enter tips.
Superintendent John Jacobs said he hopes people will use the system instead of social media.
"The part where people can talk and they are anonymous the whole time and can tell you everything that's going on about a situation, I think that is going to be very beneficial to us," Jacobs said.
Although Robertson requested to sign a contract with Anonymous Alert last year, the announcement comes just two weeks after the indictment of a teacher and cheer coach accused of having sex with a student.
Makaela Caldwell Hodgins, 32, was indicted by a grand jury after an investigation found "she did engage in sexual intercourse or deviant sexual intercourse with a student under the age of 19 years of age," the indictment states.
Hodgins pleaded not guilty to the charge. The case will go before a judge at the end of the month for a plea docket.
In the meantime, the Randolph County school system has garnered criticism for not firing Hodgins earlier in the investigation into her alleged actions. Jacobs told 1819 News the school system had to allow a proper investigation after only hearing rumors among townspeople.
The new system will allow citizens to directly communicate with school administrators if future incidents occur.
If people want to provide contact information and reveal their identity, that is an option; however, Robertson said it is nice that people can protect their identity. He said even he would not be aware of who is entering a tip.
The Randolph County school system will publish information about the tip line on its Facebook page and in school hallways.
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