DES MOINES, Iowa — As a part of the Governor’s School Safety Initiative an app was developed to allow students, teachers, and parents to anonymously submit tips about potential safety risks.

The app is called Safe and Sound Iowa and it launched last March. In the two remaining months of last school year over 70 tips were sent in through the app.

Don Schnitker, the Bureau Chief of the School Safety Bureau, said that the Bureau is working to promote the app before the new school year starts.

“We want to get the message to students that they have a voice in their safety. If they see guns, if they see drug activity, if they know of a planned assault, or even someone wanting to hurt themselves, get that information to us in real-time we will communicate back to you and we will get the right person to the person in crisis to get the help they need,” Schnitker said.

Safe and Sound Iowa is free to download and is available for all schools in Iowa, public or private. More than 800 schools plan to promote the app to their students, teachers, and parents.

Schnitker said that the app will help prevent tragedies.

“Safe and Sound Iowa is a holistic approach to school safety so a student or teacher or parent could submit that tip of that concerning behavior, we’d evaluate it in real-time and then we would get that to mental health professionals, back to the school, back to law enforcement, in the community to make sure that those kids in crisis are taken care of and we prevent these tragedies from happening,” Schnitker said.

To learn more about the Safe and Sound Iowa app visit the app’s website.