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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Success

These counselors are making a huge difference! Another interview, this time with High School Counselor, Christina Miller from Twin Rivers Schools in Missouri. After the Twin Rivers Schools participated in a student survey following the Stand for the Silent anti-bullying presentation, it was clear the students were asking for solutions. TIPS was a perfect fit for their school community, and the customization capabilities allowed Twin Rivers to make it their own and reach their students in a whole new way. Christina is very forward thinking, and TIPS is allowing her team to immediately handle small situations when they start, whether that be comments made onRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Success

Another great interview with Middle School Counselor, Craig Spinner, from Westfield Washington Schools. In 2014, Westfield Washington Schools had the honor of participating in a presentation by David and Tina Long, of Everything Starts with One and featured in the “Bully” movie, in which they spoke about their son’s tragic suicide. Tina shared that she believed the TIPS platform may have helped prevent Tyler’s death. Westfield had also recently experienced a suicide of their own and Craig recognized that the school needed to be more proactive. Awareity’s TIPS platform now allows Westfield Washington Schools to not only receive incident reports (anonymously or non-anonymously) from allRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Success

I know I am biased, but I am excited to share this recent interview with one of my favorite MOAT Administrators! Amy Roper is the Policy and Content Administrator and Legal Liaison for Virginia Lottery and has really taken advantage of the system in a big way to ensure policy compliance and accountability for all agency employees. As a state agency, Virginia Lottery has to maintain compliance with a continuous list of requirements and regulations. The agency is able to utilize the existing Virginia State Contract for MOAT and automate a lot of daily efforts spent tracking and documenting employee acknowledgements and providing on-demand progressRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Success

Although this interview was conducted before the recent tragedy in Oregon, this is great example of a community college working hard to improve student safety and prevention efforts ongoing. Rick spoke with George Okaty, Safety and Security Manager of Tidewater Community College. Okaty is a true leader who is dedicated to helping his staff become more efficient and keeping their campus safe. Tidewater Community College is using Awareity’s TIPS platform to provide all security officers a secure way to submit and keep track of all safety incidents on campus. The college will also be expanding use of the platform in the next few months toRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Success

Rick also recently sat down with Amanda Agguire, former state senator and CEO and Founder of the Regional Center for Border Health (RCBH). Agguire helped create the Yuma County Anti‐Bullying Task Force in 2008 in an effort to raise awareness regarding such a sensitive and difficult issue in rural Yuma County, Arizona. Through the use of Awareity’s TIPS, the Community Action Group is encouraging students, parents, staff, and community members to report incidents of bullying, threats of violence, weapons, drugs/alcohol, vandalism, sexting, suicide and other risks. Proper personnel from the school district selected, as well as counselors from RCBH and appropriate city/county law enforcement, areRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*

Are you attending ASIS 2015 in Anaheim this year? Are you concerned about Student Safety? Social media seems to be a big challenge for every school, as well as violence, sexual misconduct, depression, bullying and numerous other incidents that can make your school’s learning environment difficult for everyone. Administrators know the gaps can get you, so how do you eliminate these potential risks and liabilities? Students, faculty, staff, parents and community members all know things you don’t… You can maximize your ROI and ROP (Return on Prevention) by attending one of the intensive pre-session programs on Sunday, September 27th. Awareity’s founder and CEO Rick Shaw,Read More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*

In light of the horrible tragedy in Virginia where a television reporter and cameraman from WDBJ-TV were shot and killed by a former colleague during a live report on tourism, it is time to take a deeper look at the data and what can be done to prevent workplace violence related incidents and tragedies. Of course everyone agrees PREVENTING is BETTER than REACTING…so if everyone prefers PREVENTING, why are organizations seemingly in continuous REACTION MODE? Connecting the dots… My “return on prevention” experiences go all the way back to 6th grade and my professional experiences include 30+ years doing assessments (threat, risk, cyber security, physicalRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*

In case you needed more reasons to continuously improve your organization’s information security awareness, does $1 BILLION lost to hackers since October 2013 get your attention? According to the FBI, corporate account takeover and business email fraud have resulted in $1 billion dollars lost since October 2013…and some of these losses have caused organizations to go out of business. http://www.wsj.com/articles/hackers-trick-email-systems-into-wiring-them-large-sums-1438209816 Spear phishing and phishing attacks trick people into clicking on a website link or opening an attached file which plants malware inside their network. These attacks are targeting people in your organization and/or people working at your third party service providers. Once the hackers haveRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*

Cyber Attacks are on the rise and they are creating big problems and big expenses for organizations of all sizes and across most sectors. Organizations being hacked include some of the most recognized in their respective sector including the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the White House, Anthem, UCLA Health, JP Morgan, Target, Staples and a long list of others. Question: Would you rather PREVENT cyber attackers from penetrating your organization or would you rather REACT to cyber attackers inside your organization? Answer: PREVENT (by the way…everyone agrees preventing is better than reacting) Yet, with all of the lessons learned from hundreds of cyberattacks…mostRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*

What you don’t know about your Student Records System and FERPA…could cost you dearly! (and many others too!) CREATING MORE LIABILITIES is not exactly a “top priority” for most Administrators and Board members, but creating more liabilities is exactly what their Student Records System and their lack of awareness of FERPA could be doing. As I speak at K-12 and Higher Education conferences all across the nation, it is shocking how many Administrators, faculty and staff (TATs, BITs, counselors, SROs, nurses, coaches, etc.) are unaware of the section of FERPA that describes “law enforcement unit records and a law enforcement unit”. To understand how thisRead More →