Dolton School District 149 holds safety meeting addressing bullying, teen takeovers

Recent teen takeover troubles sparked an event in Dolton, Illinois, on Wednesday, bringing families and other community leaders together to find solutions.

Students, parents, and school leaders gathered at Dolton School District 149 for a special presentation.  

Eighth-grader Jerry Finger was among those in the room.

"Learned a lot about, like, bullying and stuff and how it's harmful. I was pretty excited to learn about that.

He pulled out his phone and downloaded the MyPal Schools app — a reporting method new to Dolton 149 that allows people to report safety concerns instantly, like bullying.

"It would allow me to report bullying more easier. I can just report it on the app so it can be instantly sent to them," Finger said.

The Think Safe symposium goes deeper than bullying.

Dolton 149 realized more was needed after a huge teen takeover that occurred over the summer in Dolton. School Board President Will Tilman said they figured this was one way to address the ongoing takeovers.

"It was all over social media, YouTube, all that, they were just doing what they do and it wasn't good. That's when we came up and said, you know, we have to do something else," he said.

That includes getting parents and students in the same room to let them know their choices matter. 

Dolton's police chief talked directly to the adults.

"The most important thing for the adults to do is to intervene and find out what's going on. Not only in the schools, but it starts at home. Having our children sit in their rooms with the door closed full-time for hours and hours and we don't know what's going on is somewhat of a failure on our part because something may be festering," he said.

Dolton 149 hopes events like this will keep the dialogue open and reduce safety concerns.

"Being able to do this, being able to put these tools in front of these children, it's a great thing," Tillman said.