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Arizona House bill would allow schools to offer mental health, threat reporting apps to students

Schools in other states offer apps that allow students to anonymously access mental health services and report threats. Now, thanks to a bill in the House, Arizona students could get access to similar resources.

On Tuesday, the House Education Committee advanced House Bill 2635, which would allow governing boards to develop or buy an app like that for their school districts. 

East Valley resident Katey McPherson years researching a similar app used in Utah called SafeUT. 

“Here are some quick stats from Safe UT use in 2021: 31,000 text chats between students and clinicians at the University of Utah, 295 life-saving interventions,' she said. "[Those are] active rescues where students were text chatting or calling in and saying ‘ I am going to take my life right now.’”

McPherson testified in favor of the bill as a parent and educator.

"Students are our first responders," she said. "They are in the trenches. They know who is suffering and they know who is posting threats and plans of violence. They are best positioned to identify and report concerning behaviors of classmates."

The committee voted unanimously in favor of the bill. 

This comes just a few days after Republican state superintendent Tom Horne ordered schools to prioritize armed officers over counselors or social workers.

Senior field correspondent Bridget Dowd has a bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.